Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
More than 1.9 million mortgage payment deferrals have been offered to customers impacted by Covid-19 in the three months since the support was launched according to new figures from UK Finance which means that one in six mortgages in the UK are now subject to a payment deferral. UK Finance says that this means that…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced proposals to extend the payment freeze of consumer credit products for people whose finances have been negatively impacted by Covid-19. The proposals outline the support firms would be expected to provide credit card and other revolving credit (store card and catalogue credit) and personal loan customers coming to…
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iSupply Energy is to pay a total of £1.5million in refunds and goodwill payments after more than 115,000 customers were impacted by historic failings. The energy supplier was found to have incorrectly charged customers and failed to adequately update the Priority Service Register for vulnerable users. These failings between 2013 and 2019 impacted more than…
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Firms must do more to ensure they are always giving appropriate advice to equity release consumers, a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) review has found. Demand for later life lending has grown in recent years. With the option of no monthly payments, equity release is an attractive option for some – allowing consumers to benefit from…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Commerzbank AG (London Branch) £37,805,400 for failing to put adequate anti-money laundering (AML) systems and controls in place between October 2012 and September 2017. Commerzbank London was aware of these weaknesses and failed to take reasonable and effective steps to fix them despite the FCA raising specific concerns…
Read moreNew research from Hitachi Capital (UK) has found that 55% of UK consumers living in rural areas feel prepared for the transition to a cashless society. The research found that older generations are embracing boom in cashless technology – 66% of 55+ year olds more comfortable with cashless payments since lockdown with 68% of consumers…
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Following a period of authorisation with restrictions, Castle Trust Capital has been granted full authorisation as a bank by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). After being authorised with restrictions in March 2020, Castle Trust undertook extensive testing of its new savings system and asked its customers to vote on…
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The Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) has welcomed the decision by CreditFix to drop a £84.12 fee across its entire IVA portfolio – an action would have provided the company with up to £7million in additional income. Despite temporary measures being put in place to ensure that anyone in an IVA could access…
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The Insolvency Service has published its latest insolvency statistics which have shown a year on year rise in individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) in England & Wales. In the three months ending May 2020 there was a monthly average of 7,899 registered IVAs. The figures show that there were 1,540 Debt relief orders and 739 bankruptcies…
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The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) continues to call for the Government and the Bank of England to take immediate action to support the non-bank lending market, as new FLA figures released today show that the number of Covid-19 related requests for forbearance reached 1,623,000 (over 1.6 million) in the twelve weeks to 29th May…
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Debt charity StepChange has welcomed a cross-party call for a Debt Management bill. Welcoming the letter to the Chancellor sent by more than 50 MPs and Peers calling for a Debt Management Bill to implement serious and systematic improvements to Government debt collection, StepChange says that the time to address this longstanding issue is absolutely…
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Over half of financial services professionals neglect safe data practices working from home according to new research by Tessian. 56 per cent of financial services professionals are less likely to follow safe data practices and 61 per cent feel they can ‘get away’ with riskier behaviour when working remotely. The State of Data Loss Prevention…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Lloyds Bank and its subsidiaries Bank of Scotland and The Mortgage Business £64,046,800 (over £64 million) after it was found to have failed its vulnerable mortgage customers. Failures were found in relation to their handling of mortgage customers in payment difficulties or arrears. The banks have estimated that…
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