Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Extra Energy has received the lowest score of Citizens Advice’s star rating system for energy suppliers for the second time – with a lower overall score. The company received 2.05 stars, lower than the 2.5 stars it received for the period between October and December 2016. The firm has previously received record low scores for…
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The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) estimates that gross mortgage lending reached £20.1 billion in May. This is a 12% increase on both April last month and on May last year, in which £17.9 billion was advanced. The CML’s buy-to-let forecast for 2017 and 2018 has been revised down from previous expectations at the end…
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Provident Financial has published its latest financial results and states that a fall in the number of debt collection agents at its home credit division will weigh on profits for the rest of the financial year. The company said a reorganisation of the business had led to a rise in the number of self employed part-time…
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The Credit industry has responded to the Queen’s speech. Here is an overview of the some of the main talking points: Financial Guidance and Claims Bill Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said “The right guidance can be an essential part of a secure financial future. We help people with 1.7 million money queries a…
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Lowell, a provider of credit management services, specialising in debt recovery, data analytics and consumer insight, announced today that its UK operating businesses – Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd; Lowell Financial Ltd and Fredrickson International Limited – have been granted full Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation. James Cornell, Group Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted that…
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Callcredit Information Group has acquired the Spanish Confirma group of companies, comprising Confirma Sistemas and Soluciones Confirma, which specialise in fraud prevention and anti-money laundering (AML) software solutions. The acquisition, sees Callcredit take a majority shareholding in the Madrid- headquartered business. Callcredit entered the Spanish market in 2015 and has been developing its business and…
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Mortgage sales for the UK increased by £3.4 billion in May, up 25.4% on the previous month, according to Equifax Touchstone analysis of the intermediary marketplace. Buy-to-let figures jumped 26.1% (£0.55 billion) to £2.7 billion, with residential up 25.2% (£2.88 billion) to £14.3 billion. Overall, mortgage sales for the month grew to £17.0 billion. Every…
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The Queen’s speech had announced plans for the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill. The bill’s key elements will focus on: the establishment of a new statutory body, accountable to Parliament, with responsibility for coordinating the provision of debt advice, money guidance and pension guidance the body’s activities to be funded through existing levies on pension…
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Home Catalogue Specialist N Brown has announced that it will be closing up to five Simply Be and Jacamo dual-fascia stores. This decision takes into account weak high-street footfall, both current and predicted, together with significant future business rate increases for some stores. Together, these five stores contributed £5million revenue but accounted for the entire £2million…
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Legal & General’s annual Bank of Mum and Dad survey has found that parents unlocking the equity in the family home could help to put nearly 450,000 young people into their first property. The survey found that this year 4% of homeowners over the age of 55 were considering releasing equity from their home. The…
Read moreThe Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has published data showing mortgage lending by CML members in 2016. The tables show members’ gross mortgage lending in the latest calendar year and balances outstanding at the end of 2016, rounded to the nearest £100 million and ranked on the same basis. This means that the very smallest…
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Quint Group has reported a record year of growth with a 64 per cent increase in revenue to almost £32m by March 2017. Quint saw its turnover rise from £19.5m to £31.9m in 2016/17, along with an increase in underlying profits of over 250 per cent from £1.6m to £5.9m. Growth has been driven by…
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Private Equity Investor Endless LLP has acquired PRAC Financial Limited (“PRAC”) from its private owners. PRAC is a niche debt purchasing business, specialising in acquiring regulated and non-regulated, consumer and commercial debt portfolios. Endless investment has supported PRAC with the purchase of two consumer debt portfolios to date. For both of these acquisitions, PRAC has…
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