Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published it’s annual Complaints report which indicates a continued rise in complaints about payday loan companies. FOS said there were 10,529 complaints about payday loan companies in 2016/17. This is more than a three-fold increase since the 3,216 complaints in 2015/16. Complaints about consumer credit rose by 89%. 25,984 complaints…
Read more
UK household spending has fallen for the first time since 2013. Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland Managing Director at Visa said “Consumer spending fell for the first time in nearly four years in May, following some marked slowdowns in growth since the beginning of the year. Our Index clearly shows that with rising prices and stalling…
Read more
New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that new business in the point of sale (POS) consumer new car finance market fell 19% by value and 28% by volume in April, compared with the same month in 2016. This mirrored a reduction in private new car sales in April which…
Read more
New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business fell by 2% in April, compared with the same month last year. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 3% compared with April 2016, while retail store and online credit new business fell by 4%.…
Read more
One out of every 10 Irish borrowers is in some form of arrears on their mortgage. A total of 76,400 mortgages on homes were in arrears in the first three months of this year, new Central Bank of Ireland figures show. Of the total in arrears, almost 34,000 mortgage accounts are more than two years…
Read more
The importance of addressing the priority digital collections needs within your business “New and improved” technology is touted as the solution to the collection industry’s growing complexity. But just as endless “improvements” overhyped in grocery products lead to consumer distrust, technology-solution claims deserve a similar sceptical reaction. Consumers and collectors alike would benefit from taking…
Read more
Latest Bank of England figures show that the annual growth of consumer credit (which includes credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts) was up 10.3% in April, up from the 10.2% recorded in March, but lower than February’s 10.5% rise. There were 64,645 home loans approved in April, the lowest number since September last year. The…
Read more
The Central Bank of Ireland has released Ireland’s Money and Banking Statistics for April 2017. Drawdowns of consumer loans exceeded repayments by €158 million in April, the largest monthly increase since January 2011. The new lending largely comprises medium term loans, which typically include car loans, furniture and holiday loans. Here is an overview of the latest…
Read more
Rapid growth in the use of contactless cards means cash will be overtaken as Britain’s most frequently used payment method by the end of 2018, according to a new report published by Payments UK, the trade association for the payments industry. This latest forecast still does not herald the demise of cash – even in…
Read more
Debt is a part of modern life according to more than half of people over 50 shows a new survey.* Whilst one in four said that they would never borrow money and more than two thirds said they would always use cash savings over borrowing money, a third of over 50s said that they would…
Read more
The British Bankers Association (BBA) latest high street banking data shows that consumer credit growth was 6.4% in April, compared with 6.1% in the previous month. Gross mortgage borrowing totalled £13.4 billion in April.* Net mortgage borrowing was 2.4% higher than a year ago. Eric Leenders, BBA Managing Director for Retail Banking said “As the…
Read more
The TUC has published a new analysis of household debt, which finds that unsecured debt per household will reach a record high of £13,900 this year. Unsecured debt per household was £13,200 in 2016 – the highest figure since the financial crisis, and only marginally below the peak of £13,300 in 2007. The TUC analysis…
Read more
A lack of understanding and trust in technology is stalling mainstream adoption of innovative new services which could make millions of people’s daily lives simpler and more secure, new HSBC research reveals. A new HSBC research report, Trust in Technology, shows that technologies such as fingerprint recognition, voice recognition and robo-advice hold enormous potential for…
Read more