Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A third (30%) of the lending market is being underserved amid heightening scrutiny around affordability and compliance rules designed to raise the bar for how lending decisions are made, according to the latest market study from Chartis Research and LexisNexis® Risk Solutions. In line with HM Treasury’s push to expand access to affordable credit, nearly…
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Buy-to-let (BTL) lending rose 25% in value year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, according to figures from UK Finance. The data showed that 58,051 new buy-to-let loans were issued in the UK, worth £10.7 billion. Compared with Q2 2025, the number of loans increased by 20.6 per cent, while their total value rose by…
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Paragon Bank has promoted Matt Fulford to Head of Specialist Lending within its Mortgages division, reinforcing its focus on helping brokers place an increasingly broad range of buy-to-let business, from straightforward transactions through to more complex cases. Reporting to Lisa Steele, Mortgage Lending Director, Fulford will lead Paragon’s specialist lending proposition and oversee the rollout…
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Latest data from Moneyfacts shows the average product shelf-life fell to just 13 days in October, down from 14 days in September, as swap-rate fluctuations prompted lenders to reprice or withdraw products repeatedly. However, the figure remains well above the record low of just eight days recorded in April, following the initial impact of the US-Iran…
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A majority of first-time UK buyers now pay more towards their monthly mortgage bills than they used to pay in rent, the estate agent Hamptons has found. Last month 56% of first-time buyers said their monthly mortgage bills exceeded their previous rent, the highest proportion in at least a decade. They paid £39 more on…
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New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that FLA members across the asset finance, consumer finance and motor finance markets provided £110.8 billion of new lending in the eight months to August 2026, 4% higher than in the same period in 2025. Of this total 27.5 billion was provided to…
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The UK stage is set for an unprecedented scale of wealth transfer between generations in the decades ahead. But as longer lives make retirement, health and potential care costs harder to predict, new research from Canada Life suggests the big question for many families is not simply how much they might pass on, but when. Whilst…
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One in five (20%), the equivalent of around 10.4 million people aged 18-802, are not planning for their financial futures because they are ‘too busy’ according to research by Standard Life.. While financial pressures are an obvious barrier to saving for retirement, with over half (52%) of those who worry they are not saving enough…
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Paragon Bank has appointed Kate Cooper as Senior Bridging Underwriter and Swaraj Dada as Head of Bridging Credit as it continues to build its newly created Bridging Finance team. The appointments strengthen the specialist team being assembled by Colin Sanders, Managing Director of Bridging Finance, ahead of the proposition’s wider launch. Dada brings 16 years…
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Nearly four in ten parents say grandparents are saving for their children’s future, helping younger generations prepare for major milestones including university, driving and buying their first home, new research from Paragon Bank has found. The study found that 39% of parents said grandparents were putting money aside for their grandchildren. Among those families, university…
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StreamBank, the specialist lender focused on bridging, commercial and buy-to-let finance, has appointed Barry Carter as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective from 14th December 2026. He will succeed Mike Kirsopp, who is retiring after leading StreamBank through significant growth and helping establish it as a leading specialist property finance lender. Carter joins StreamBank from…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that the Upper Tribunal will hear the legal challenges to our motor finance compensation scheme in February 2027. The scheme was challenged by three lenders, Volkswagen Financial Services, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, and Crédit Agricole Auto Finance and by Consumer Voice, represented by Courmacs Legal. Whilst the scheme is…
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European business decision-makers feel they are being treated as second-class customers by financial providers, according to new research by CRIF. The research finds that four in ten European businesses (41%) say a lack of innovation in financial services is stifling their company’s growth potential, rising to more than half in Ireland (52%). Alongside these growth…
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