Provident appoint acting Chair as CEO

2nd February 2018 Consumer Collections |

Provident Financial Group has announced the appointment of Malcolm Le May as Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with immediate effect. This follows a Board process led by Stuart Sinclair over recent months. Stuart Sinclair, who led the Nomination Committee process to appoint the new Group CEO said: “It became clear to the Board as the search…

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FCA publishes update on high-cost credit

31st January 2018 Consumer Collections |

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published an update on its work in the high-cost credit sector. The update follows a Feedback Statement the FCA published in July 2017 which identified key areas of concern with the sector including overdrafts, rent-to-own, home-collected credit and catalogue credit. Work undertaken since July 2017 has demonstrated an emerging…

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60% of UK borrowers do not know their personal loans interest rate

31st January 2018 Consumer Collections |

New research from Mintel has found that the majority of unsecured loan borrowers are living in ignorance as three in five Brits (60%) admit they are unaware of the interest rate being charged. More figures suggest 74% of Brits aged 45-64 with structured personal loans say they do not know the rates they are paying.…

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P2PFA members lending exceeds £8 billion

29th January 2018 Alternative Consumer Lending |

The P2PFA has published data showing that in the period ending in the fourth quarter of 2017, cumulative lending transacted through P2PFA member platforms exceeded £8 billion. Commenting on the data, Robert Pettigrew, Director of the P2PFA, said “The final three months of 2017 saw considerable growth in levels of new lending transacted through platforms…

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Provident announces board departure

29th January 2018 Consumer Collections |

Provident Financial has announced that David Sear, FinTech veteran and former founder of WorldPay has decided to step down from the board. Sear joined the board a year ago to assist with the development of the group’s strategy in this arena and broader IT direction, the group now finds itself in very different circumstances and…

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Provident Financial confirms £120m losses

17th January 2018 Consumer Collections |

Provident Financial is to report a pre-exceptional loss of around £120m in its consumer credit division. The lender has published a trading update for the year to 31st December 2017, ahead of its final results for the year which will be announced in late February. The report summary highlights: Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn have both traded…

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CFA appoints new Head of Communications

16th January 2018 Consumer Collections |

The Consumer Finance Association (CFA), the principal trade association for short-term lenders, has appointed Lucy Donovan as their Head of Communications, a new role that will cover public relations, public affairs and member engagement. Lucy joins the CFA after six years with one of the UK’s largest short-term lenders, where she held various communications roles.…

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H&T looking at profit rise

9th January 2018 Consumer Collections |

Pawnbroker, H&T has announced a strong quarter four performance for pawnbroking and retail, and expects the full year profit before tax to be above current market expectations. The Group has delivered another good performance in its lending operations.  The pledge book increased 11.6% to £46.1m (31 December 2016: £41.3m) as a result of the higher gold…

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310,000 borrowing from Loan Sharks in the UK

22nd December 2017 Consumer Collections |

ABCUL (Association of British Credit Unions) is looking to raise awareness loan shark activity in the UK. The news of this credit union activity comes as a review by the Financial Conduct Authority has been published aiming to shed light on loan shark activities. While it concludes that there is no evidence that the FCA’s…

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LendingMetrics to launch Open Banking service

20th December 2017 Consumer Collections |

Decisioning software specialist LendingMetrics is set to launch a new Open Banking service in 2018. The  “Open Bank Vision” campaign will launch in early 2018 as a free service. There will be zero setup fees, transaction fees, account fees, or indeed fees of any nature. The company has also emphasised that this is not an introductory offer,…

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Express Gifts and Welcom announce lending platform partnership

12th December 2017 Consumer Collections |

Consumer credit provider Express Gifts has agreed a consumer credit agreement partnership with Welcom Digital’s Financier Lending Platform. Express Gifts offers existing and potential new customers access to affordable credit subject to a rigorous underwriting process that assesses the creditworthiness, indebtedness and affordability of each applicant. Critically completed prior to peak-season trading, the data migration phase was the…

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Credit & Collections Technology Awards 2017 Winners revealed

7th December 2017 Consumer Collections |

The winners of the inaugural 2017 Credit & Collections Technology Awards have been revealed. There were sixteen winners (three of which were partnership wins) from the sixteen Awards categories which are covered by four main headings of Credit, Collections, Credit & Collections services and Innovation. The Credit & Collections Technology Awards were launched in the Summer and…

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FCA releases illegal money lending report

29th November 2017 Consumer Collections |

The Financial Conduct Authority has released a new report on illegal money lenders. The report titled “Shining a light on illegal money lending: consumer experiences of unauthorised lending in the UK” highlights the real-life consequences of reducing access to responsible, regulated, short-term credit. In a statement, the FCA said  “Last year we conducted research with our…

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