Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Western Power Distribution (WPD), the largest electricity distribution network operator in the UK, has agreed to make a voluntary redress payment of £14.9 million after accepting it failed to meet its obligations to provide information to some of its most vulnerable customers. Network companies are required to provide additional services to households in vulnerable circumstances who are…
Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it has recruited three experienced individuals to its senior leadership team. Mel Gunewardena will take up a Senior Advisor role at the FCA. Gunewardena is currently Chief Market Intelligence Officer at the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission based in Washington DC and a former Managing Director at…
Read more
Fintech, Paylink Solutions has expanded its senior team with a new Head of Operations and Head of Information Security appointments. Joe Clarke has been appointed Head of Operations and will be responsible for overseeing Paylink’s operations and IT services, managing key projects and delivering the performance management framework and new graduate scheme. Susan Rann, Paylink’s…
Read more
The Credit Services Association (CSA), the UK trade body for debt collection and debt purchase, has released a new report exploring the provision of debt advice for those facing financial difficulties and in need of support. The report entitled ‘Wide of the Mark? Assessing the Delivery & Value of Free-To-Client Debt Advice’ argues that consistent…
Read more
The cost of living crisis is being made worse for poorer households by waning competition in British markets according to new a report by Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) The CMA states that effective competition helps make sure shoppers and households get a fair deal when buying goods and services. This is especially important at…
Read more
Latest statistics quarterly figures from the Insolvency Service for England & Wales have indicated that personal insolvencies numbers have reached their highest total number in over three years, since Q4 2018. The figures reveal that there were 32,305 (an increase of 16.8%) individuals entering either bankruptcy (1,679) a debt relief order or DRO (6,629) or…
Read more
Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for Apri, 2022 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,773.2 billion at the end of February 2022. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £63,803 and per adult was £33,526, around 107.9% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending rose by…
Read moreUnited Utilities Group has announced that Louise Beardmore will take over as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) which will follow the retirement of Steve Mogford early next year. Mogford, who has been in charge of the water company for 12 years, will be supported by Beardmore, who is currently the Group’s Customer Service and People Director until…
Read more
Debt collections specialist, Barratt Smith Brown has announced that they have successfully completed the FCA approval process and are now a regulated company. Ashley Barratt, CEO of Barratt Smith Brown said “Becoming an FCA regulated company is critical to our ambitious expansion plans for Barratt Smith Brown. The FCA is the gold standard for financial…
Read more
The amount of money that households collectively owe to their energy suppliers has doubled in the past year to reach £1 billion, with a quarter (23%) of consumers now in energy debt, according to new research from Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service. The number of households in debt to their supplier has risen by…
Read more
European credit management services, Lowell says it has achieved record full-year results for the 12 months ended 31st December 2021. The company says collections have continued ahead of expectations across the Group with all regions performing ahead of forecast. Collection performance for the 12 months ended December 2021 vs December 2020 static pool is 106%.…
Read more
Latest figures from Accountant in Bankruptcy have shown that overall, personal insolvency numbers (bankruptcies and protected trust deeds) in Scotland for Quarter 4 2021-2022 were 13% higher compared with Q4 2020-2021, at 1,894 (2021-2022) against 1,677 (2020-2021). A total of 551 bankruptcies were awarded during this quarter – a 2.1% decrease on the same quarter…
Read more
Average UK rents have increased for the sixth consecutive quarter, according to The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS). The research also showed that some tenants are paying above the going rate to secure a property. The UK’s largest protector of deposits, which safeguards 1.8m rent securities, says that average rents now stand at £849 a…
Read more