Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Interest in fixed-rate mortgage deals remained high in February, according to latest figures from Experian. A majority of consumers (81%) were looking at fixed-term deals, compared to 80% in January and 83% in December. The figures suggest consumers are increasingly reluctant to view tracker deals as a realistic option for their home loan, with just…
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Contactless transactions have risen 31 percent year-on-year in 2018, to latest data from banking trade body UK Finance. The current payment limit with a contactless card is £30, more than which a Pin must be used. But an increase in usage throughout 2018 is expected to lead to an increase in that maximum, although those…
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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 published its second thematic review of the debt management sector, looking at commercial and not-for-profit firms that provide debt advice and administer debt management plans to help customers deal with their debts. The FCA’s first thematic review in 2015 found significant concerns with the quality of advice being given…
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More small and newer energy suppliers are failing to meet decent standards of customer service, according to Citizens Advice’s latest energy star rating league table. The charity believes these latest figures and recent supplier failures further highlight the need for Ofgem to tighten the rules on who can get a licence to supply energy. It…
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Ofgem has appointed SSE to take on supplying Brilliant Energy’s 17,000 domestic customers. This follows a competitive process run by Ofgem to get the best deal possible for customers. SSE is offering Brilliant Energy’s customers, including those supplied under a ‘white label’ arrangement with Northumbria Energy, a competitive tariff. All outstanding credit balances, including money…
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Provident Financial has signed up to the Women in Finance Charter. Provident is one of 36 new signatories to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, a government initiative to improve gender diversity in senior positions within the financial services sector. Committing to be a Charter signatory is part of Provident Financial’s wider equality and…
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Provident Financial has published its full-year company (ending 31st December 2018) results which indicate that adjusted pre-tax profits increased, up 82% to £153.5m in 2018. Malcolm Le May, Provident’s group chief executive, said “Today’s results are testament to the immense progress that the Group has made over the past 18 months, having delivered adjusted profit…
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Wonga’s insolvency administrator Grant Thornton has said that complaints against failed lender Wonga rose to over 40,000. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) told the Treasury Committee in January 2019 that at the point that Wonga went into administration in August 2018, there were ‘about 10,500’ consumers who had complaints open about the payday lender but…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined The Carphone Warehouse £29,107,600 for failings that led to the mis-selling of “Geek Squad” a mobile phone insurance and technical support product. This follows an FCA investigation which stemmed from whistleblowing reports. The FCA found The Carphone Warehouse failed to give its sales consultants the right training to…
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Irish bank KBC has appointed Peter Roebben has been appointed as its new Chief Executive assuming the role from Wim Verbraeken, who will return to the Belgian bank’s head office in Brussels. Roebben, who is currently a senior general manager of group credit risk at KBC Group’s head office in Brussels During his 27-year career with KBC,…
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New research from Experian has identified 5.8 million people in the UK who are virtually invisible to the credit economy because there is little or no information available on their financial track record. In the absence of sufficient information to make a decision, these Invisibles can either be excluded from mainstream financial services or be…
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New research from comparethemarket.com has found that half of homeowners feel they have made expensive mistakes during the process of buying their first property. In a poll of over 2,000 homeowners, 15% wished they’d haggled more on the price of the house when buying their first property and 10% of respondents said they made a…
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