Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Vulnerable people who fall behind with Council Tax payments will have greater protection from aggressive debt enforcement under new plans to improve the way councils collect arrears. Following concerns from charities, debt advice bodies and local councils, ministers are moving forward with work to create a fairer, more efficient and compassionate debt recovery system. Local…
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Videalert, a supplier of intelligent traffic management and enforcement solutions to local authorities, has been acquired by enforcement services group Marston Holdings. The announcement follows successful deployments for a number of Marston’s strategic clients, including the London Borough of Barnet, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the City of Westminster, where Videalert has…
Read moreFollowing on from the successful acquisition of the SIRS Europe in 2018, Carnoustie Resources has announced the acquisition of a second company. CLS Associates (UK) has been acquired after completing successful negotiations over the last 6 months. CLS was formed in 2006, is based in Kent and provides a range of Investigation services to clients…
Read moreMillions of consumers are taking on multiple forms of debt without a clear plan of how to pay it off, new research by KnowYourMoney.co.uk has revealed. The comparison website commissioned an independent, nationally-representative survey among more than 2,000 UK adults. It found that 62% of people across the country have some form of debt, with credit cards (35%),…
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East Renfrewshire council has made moves to write off more than £1million of debt. Members of the authority’s cabinet are being asked to approve the move, which would cancel debts racked up in council tax, housing benefit overpayments, rents arrears and court expenses. Roughly £800,000 of uncollected non-domestic rates (NDR) could also be written off…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced the final rules on the Directory – a new public register that enables consumers, firms and other stakeholders to find information on key individuals working in financial services. Publishing this information on a regular basis will empower customers to make sure they only deal with individuals whom an…
Read moreThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) will soon be able to require financial services firms to pay significantly more compensation to consumers and businesses. From 1 April, the current £150,000 limit will increase to £350,000 for complaints about actions by firms on or after that date. For complaints about…
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Over half (52%) of financial services customers feel that financial services firms treat consumers unfairly, according to new research by Voice of the Customer (VoC) pioneers Maru/edr. The findings are from a new study into customer treatment in the financial services industry, which interviewed 1,000 independent customers who held at least once financial product in…
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New figures from the Registry Trust indicate that in 2018, there were 1,115,099 County Court judgments (CCJs) were registered against consumers in England and Wales, a fall of two percent on 2017. This is the first time in six years that the number of CCJs against consumers has fallen. The average value of a consumer CCJ…
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New figures released by the Finance Leasing Association (FLA) have shown that the number of second charge repossessions in 2018 was 147, 8.1% higher than in 2017. In the final quarter of 2018, the number of repossessions was 28, down by 26.3% compared to the same period in 2017. The number of properties repossessed during…
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UK Finance has published its Mortgage Arrears and Possessions Update for the fourth quarter of 2018, which saw 4580 homeowner possessions in 2018, the lowest level since 1980 when there were 3480 possessions. During this period, there were 6.2 million outstanding homeowner mortgages, compared to 9 million at the end of December 2018. The data…
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Lenders could find it much harder to enforce cross border debts in the event of a no deal Brexit, RSM has warned. Currently, European regulations facilitate the collection of cross border debts within the EU, notably through the use of European Enforcement Orders. These allow a judgment in one member state to be enforced in…
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Enforcement specialist, Court Enforcement Services has announced high-level executive changes to its board within its high court enforcement and compliance management teams. At board level, Alan Smith has been formally appointed to the board. Simon Williamson has resigned as Director to concentrate on other interests, but he remains a shareholder of the business. This means that…
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