Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The FCA has rejected calls to cap interest rates charged on credit cards saying that planned measures to help people avoid excessive debt should be given time to work. Speaking at Reuters Financial Regulation Summit Andrew Bailey, Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority said “We are not there at the moment,” said in response…
Read moreThe Bank of England’s (BoE) Financial Policy Committee (FPC) has said that lenders are creating pockets of risk by placing too much weight on recent benign conditions. In a statement from its policy meeting on 20 September 2017, the BoE said that the overall credit quality of consumer credit has improved significantly since the financial crisis.…
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Patrick Casey has been appointed Registrar of Credit Unions in the Central Bank of Ireland. Casey is currently Head of Resolution in the Central Bank. He will be responsible for the regulation and supervision of the credit union sector in Ireland and succeeds the previous Registrar Anne Marie McKiernan who has recently become Ireland’s representative…
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Energy companies do not “speak the same language” as consumers. This is one of the key conclusions of a major new report launched today by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), the independent think tank, which looks at the barriers to greater consumer engagement in the energy market. Keep it simple: Energy bills made…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today published an Occasional Paper outlining the findings from a project that explored how the ageing population would impact the Financial Services industry. The FCA launched the Ageing Population Project in February 2016 to explore how older people use financial services and products. The paper reviews the public policy…
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A new agreement on how deposit-takers communicate about FSCS protection has launched today. This will enhance consumer awareness of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s (FSCS) guarantee for deposits in banks and building societies and reassure them that their money is protected under the scheme no matter how they choose to bank. This protects deposits up…
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A new report from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says that a five-week wait for Universal Credit has been a major factor in pushing claimants into rent arrears. The report shows that people on the new benefit are falling into rent arrears, with over 2 in 5 saying this was due to problems with…
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A company behind a record high 146 million illegal calls about PPI has been fined £350,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). People were left feeling “harassed” and “threatened” by the recorded – also known as automated – calls initiated by Carmarthenshire-based Your Money Rights Ltd. The company was responsible for the most amount of automated calls…
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Qualco UK has been awarded ISO 14001 certification by The British Assessment Bureau. The internationally recognised standard is awarded to organisations that have an effective Environmental Management System (EMS) in place, demonstrating a business-wide commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its activities, products and services through effective recycling, safe waste disposal, pollution prevention and…
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Thursday 14th September marks ten years since the Bank of England’s announcement of emergency liquidity support for Northern Rock. What followed was the first run on a bank in more than 100 years. The news caused concern amongst members of the public, with images of queues at Northern Rock branches beamed around the world. The…
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The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and Bank of England (BoE) have announced that the Payment System Operator Delivery Group (PSODG) has completed the necessary steps to deliver against the mandate that the regulators tasked it with. Following the appointment of Melanie Johnson as its first chair, work will continue at pace to deliver the New…
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Peer-to-peer lending platform JustUs has been granted full authorisation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Founder and Chief Executive Lee Birkett CEO said: “I am thrilled we have secured this authorisation. It has been a long process and we understand the need for the FCA to be thorough and rigorous. It means we can now…
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A major Independent Review of the Funding of Debt Advice, led by Peter Wyman, reached a key milestone today with the launch of a “Call for Evidence”. The Review, set up in response to a challenging and complex debt advice funding landscape will make recommendations for an appropriate funding framework for the future, and look…
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