Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Central Bank of Ireland has publishised its third report on the financial condition of the credit union sector. Data focuses on trends in the period 31 March 2013 to 31 March 2018, including analysis by credit union asset size and common bond type. The primary focus of this publication is to provide analysis of data…
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The Bank of England (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has today voted to increase interest rates to 0.75 percent, its highest level since 2009. Commenting on today’s decision by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, StepChange Debt Charity urges policymakers to keep a…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has opened a new consultation on rules and guidance to improve conduct standards and communications in the payment services and e-money sectors. The Consultation Paper proposes to extend the application of the Principles for Businesses and certain specific rules about promotions and communications so that they cover wider categories of…
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Public sector outsourcing spend has increased sharply in the first six months of 2018 despite a backdrop of Brexit uncertainty, according to the Arvato UK Outsourcing Index. Overall, £2.61 billion of outsourcing deals were signed between January and June, of which £998 million were government contracts. The total value of public sector spending was up 39…
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Lenders working closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), have agreed on common standards to help existing borrowers on reversion rates who are up-to-date with repayments but, because of stricter affordability criteria, are currently ineligible to move to an alternative product provided by their lender. The cross-industry voluntary commitment has been announced by UK Finance,…
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New figures from analytic software specialist Fico with Euromonitor International and UK Finance, has indicated that the UK has made significant gains in the fight against payments card fraud in 2017. France and the UK achieved reductions of 6 and 8 percent, respectively, for the biggest reductions in net fraud losses. This is despite losses across the…
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Customers of landline, broadband, TV and mobile services must be told when they are approaching the end of their minimum contract period, under new rules proposed by Ofcom. More than 20 million customers of these services are currently outside their minimum contract period, and more than 10 million are on deals with an automatic price increase…
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Ofgem has chosen Octopus Energy Limited to take on supplying the customers of Iresa, which went out of business last week. The appointment follows a competitive process run by Ofgem to get the best deal possible for Iresa’s customers. Octopus Energy is offering Iresa’s customers its “Flexible Octopus” tariff, which is one of the most competitive…
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Public sector debt collection should not be lagging behind private sector best practice, H&F Ethical Collections said today. H&F Ethical Collections is the joint venture between global credit management firm Intrum and Hammersmith & Fulham Council which was formed in 2017 to reduce the use of bailiffs and improve the treatment of people in debt.…
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Provident Financial has announced its financial results for the first half of this year which indicate a fall in profits. Provident statutory pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 June of £34.6m in H1 2018, down from £73.3m in H1 2017; a drop of £38.7m. Its adjusted pre-tax profits fared better, dropping from £98.6m to £74.9m. Adjusted…
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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has referred Experian’s purchase of ClearScore for an in-depth merger investigation. The CMA found that Experian and ClearScore are the two largest credit checking firms and are each other’s, main competitors. In the CMA initial (phase 1) investigation identified concerns that the merged company would be less likely to innovate…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published it’s ”Assessing creditworthiness in consumer credit’ policy statement which provides rules and guidance on assessing creditworthiness in consumer credit. The announcement coincides with the Bank of England revealing the amount of credit held by UK households increased by £3.7 billion in June and the rate of credit card…
Read moreProvident Financial has announced that it has appointed Patrick Snowball, as its Chairman and non-executive director. He will join the Board as Chairman on 21st September 2018. Stuart Sinclair, Interim Chairman, will retire from the Board. Snowball s an experienced Chairman, Non-Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, following a distinguished career in the insurance and…
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