Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
According to a new study from protection specialist LV=, renters among the late-Millennial generation (25-34 years old) are one of the least financially resilient groups in the UK. Based on research conducted with over 9,000 people, the first instalment of LV=’s ‘Income Roulette’ research found that more than half (55%) of 25-34-year-olds fall short of the…
Read more
Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds) has agreed to set up a redress scheme for mortgage customers who incurred fees after they fell behind with their mortgage payments. Following engagement with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Lloyds acknowledged that when customers fell into arrears, they did not always do enough to understand customers’ circumstances to be confident…
Read more
Debt Recovery law form Ascent Performance Group has announced a new partnership with Francis Hanna & Co, allowing Ascent to provide its full range of services across Northern Ireland. The move gives Ascent the widest UK geographical coverage of any debt recovery law firm. Ascent already operates in England, Wales and Scotland. The relationship will be based…
Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published proposals to extend the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) to almost all regulated firms. The new regime will essentially replace the Approved Persons Regime. The aim of the new regime is to reduce harm to consumers and strengthen market integrity by making individuals more accountable for their…
Read more
The Credit Services Association (CSA) has secured an agreement with Royal Mail to bring the Test & Innovate Scheme (TIS) to the collections industry. TIS is an incentive for trying new ideas in mail applications that could prompt higher response rates from customers. These range from changes to letter content and layout through to envelope changes…
Read more
European Union (EU) finance ministers on Tuesday called for speedier unloading of bad debt by EU banks and recommended more money be put aside by the banks to protect them from trouble. The decade-long financial crisis left European banks holding nearly 1 trillion euros of non-performing loans (NPLs), reducing their ability to lend and slowing…
Read more
Coventry City Council is owed more than £12.5million in council tax, according to a new report. Only six of 36 metropolitan councils in England had lower levels of council tax arrears relative to their collectable council tax at the end of March 2017. However, only four metropolitan local authorities collected more council tax arrears than Coventry in 2016/17.…
Read more
The Credit Services Association (CSA), the voice of the UK debt collection and purchase industry, has revised and relaunched its Code of Practice to incorporate new Principles of Business. The new revised Code continues to promote best practice in terms of collections activity, and also details what the CSA expects of its members in terms…
Read moreCapita has announced the sale of the Capita Asset Services businesses (CAS) to Link Administration Holdings (Link Group) for a cash free, debt free consideration of £888 million. Capita Asset Services offers a range of services including mortgage and loan servicing. Capita has previously entered the UK mortgage servicing Crown Mortgage Management and Vertex Mortgage…
Read more
New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show consumer finance new business grew in May by 8% compared with the same month last year. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 11% compared with May 2016, while retail store and online credit new business increased by 3%. Second charge…
Read more
Hammersmith & Fulham Council and Debt Purchaser 1st Credit have launched a new joint venture: H&F Ethical Debt Collections, at the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Birmingham.The partnership changes the way public sector debts are handled, ending the two-tier treatment of customers in debt by applying Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) standards to public as…
Read more
A new toolkit to bring consistency to the way creditors work with debt advice agencies when collecting repayments from people who are in debt has been launched by the Money Advice Service today. This is the first time that all major debt advice agencies and creditors have worked together to raise standards of creditor practice…
Read more
Three-quarters of students will never clear their debt with the average debt now standing at £50,000 according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) report. Students in England graduate with average debts of £50,800, after interest rates are raised on student loans to 6.1%.Other key findings in the report include: Those from the poorest backgrounds…
Read more