Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Consumers are taking a ‘pick n mix’ approach to how they make payments, with mobile banking, mobile payments and contactless all becoming increasingly popular, research by UK Finance has revealed. Just as digital technology has allowed people to customise the way they listen to music or read the news, it is now transforming the world…
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UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) has announced that it has now repaid its £48.7 billion taxpayer loan. The loan was not expected to be repaid until the mid-2020s but has been able to do so more quickly by selling off packages of loans to private equity buyers. UKAR which incorporates Bradford & Bingley was created in October…
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Consumer credit increased by £0.9 billion in April, in line with the monthly average increase since July 2018. The annual growth in consumer credit continued slowing, to 5.9% from 6.4% in March – its slowest rate since 2014 – as households limited spending on credit cards and cut back on finance deals. The figures highlighted…
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Irish bank, Permanent TSB has been reprimanded and fined €21 million by regulator, Central Bank of Ireland for regulatory breaches affecting tracker mortgage customers The fine to Permanent TSB was in respect of serious failings to 2,007 tracker mortgage customer accounts which were impacted for the period between August 2004 and October 2018. PTSB has…
Read moreThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have fined Raphael Bank (Raphaels) for failing to manage its outsourcing arrangements properly between April 2014 and December 2016. Raphaels has received separate fines of £775,100 from the FCA and £1,112,152 from the PRA in respect of these breaches (resulting in a combined fine of…
Read moreDebt charity, StepChange has raised concerns that consumers with long-standing debts on credit cards, who have received letters encouraging them to make more than the minimum payments are could be unclear in their messaging. Rules set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) mean that many people will now be receiving a second reminder suggesting they…
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It would take the average person in the UK 26 years and 9 months to pay off the average credit card debt, if they only make the minimum payment each month, according to the May 2019 Money Statistics, produced by The Money Charity. With the average credit card debt per UK household standing at £2,655 in March…
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The Open Banking revolution is being hampered by outages that banks are taking weeks to fix, according to figures from SME lender Growth Street. The conclusions made by the lender are based upon analysis of publicly available data which the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) published on their API monitoring tool. The data shows that…
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Retired homeowners are increasingly using property wealth to clear unsecured debts and mortgages to strengthen their later life finances, new data from the UK’s independent equity release adviser Key shows. The number of customers using money from their homes to pay off credit cards and loans hit a three-year high of 35% in Q1 2019 which…
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UK Finance has published its Q1 2019 figures for mortgage lending in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and London, which highlight steady growth across the regions. In Northern Ireland both the first-time buyer and remortgaging markets saw major improvements, in line with previous quarters. There were 2,440 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in Northern Ireland in…
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Tesco Bank has announced that it has ceased new mortgage lending and is actively exploring options to sell its existing mortgage portfolio, including the complete transfer of related balances and ongoing administration of relevant accounts. The Bank, which has offered mortgages since 2012, currently serves over 23,000 customers with total lending balances of £3.7billion. Gerry…
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The average consumer doesn’t begin to worry about their debt until it hits £6,012, a new study has found. The research also revealed many only consider themselves to be ‘in debt’ once they are £3,882 in the red. But they only begin to see the deficit as a ‘serious concern’ when they owe more than…
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The latest UK card stats reveal that the growth in credit card spending is down to 4.9% in February. In February 2018 the corresponding figure was 8.3%. However, the use of credit cards continues to increase as a payment method in the UK. There were 246 million transactions on cardholders’ credit cards in February 2019,…
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