Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Fraud prevention service, Cifas has revealed that cases of identity rose by 18% in 2019 compared to the previous year – the highest ever increase recorded on the Cifas National Fraud Database. Identity fraud occurs when a fraudster abuses personal data to impersonate an innocent party, or creates a fictitious identity, often to open a…
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The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on people’s finances and is driving them towards payday lenders and other high-cost credit, according to Credit Kudos’ first Borrowing Index. The Index is based upon a survey of 2,000 UK adults found that nearly three in ten people (28%) have had their income impacted by Covid-19.…
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The Ministry of Justice has announced that it will allow enforcement visits to recommence from 24th August 2020. Responding to the announcement, debt charity StepChange says that it believes this is unsafe, and deeply troubling when compared with the more careful approaches being taken in other sectors where regulators are closely overseeing the practices of…
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The number of Universal Credit claims made by the over 50s more than doubled in May compared with March this year, rising from 304,000 to nearly 660,000 in just two months, with further analysis showing that the age bracket do not have enough money to pay for basic necessities, a study of labour market statistics has…
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Lower-income households are twice as likely as high-income households to have increased their use of consumer credit during the crisis, and are 50 per cent more likely to be saving less than usual, leaving them particularly exposed to the ongoing economic crisis, according to a major new Resolution Foundation report. The Rainy Days, report published…
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More than 1.9 million mortgage payment deferrals have been offered to customers impacted by Covid-19 in the three months since the support was launched according to new figures from UK Finance which means that one in six mortgages in the UK are now subject to a payment deferral. UK Finance says that this means that…
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UK Finance has said that banks would pay for access to a central open banking resource under proposed next steps to introduce the concept in the UK. Under proposals from the trade body, open banking functions to let people share their spending habits, regular payments and payees with other banks would move into a separate…
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The ongoing disruption to the school year is set to have a dramatic impact on household finances, with a third (33%) of families with children at home admitting that they will experience a negative impact on their finances if schools don’t open in the near future according to Comparethemarket.com research. Family anxiety around employment and…
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Severe economic disruption caused by COVID-19 will see a short-term hit for the UK mortgage market, but payments holidays should keep it afloat and see growth from 2021, according data and analytics company GlobalData. GlobalData’s post-COVID-19 amended forecasts expect a decline of 1.3% in mortgage loans in 2020, down from 2.6% previously. Its overall compound…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced proposals to extend the payment freeze of consumer credit products for people whose finances have been negatively impacted by Covid-19. The proposals outline the support firms would be expected to provide credit card and other revolving credit (store card and catalogue credit) and personal loan customers coming to…
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Loans Warehouse has announced that it has selected award-winning fintech Credit Kudos as its Open Banking provider, to enable lenders to safely and responsibly increase lending activity. Credit Kudos has developed a secure onward consent mechanism that allows Loans Warehouse to safely share credit risk and affordability insights with lenders to help better inform their…
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New research by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation (JRF) and Save the Children has revealed that nearly two thirds of hard-pressed families on Universal Credit are borrowing money to stay afloat during the Covid-19 emergency, as the organisations call for an urgent £20 a week increase to the Child Element of Universal Credit and Child Tax…
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Firms must do more to ensure they are always giving appropriate advice to equity release consumers, a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) review has found. Demand for later life lending has grown in recent years. With the option of no monthly payments, equity release is an attractive option for some – allowing consumers to benefit from…
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