Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it has imposed a fine of £1,976,000 on credit card lender, Vanquis, for failing to disclose the full price of an add-on product, called Repayment Option Plan (ROP). The firm will also repay an estimated £168,781,000 in compensation which constitutes the amount of the charges not disclosed…
Read moreABCUL (Association of British Credit Unions Limited) Chief Executive Mark Lyonette has announced that he will be leaving the association. Lyonette has been at the association for over 20 years. Under Lyonette’s leadership ABCUL has developed into a leading voice on issues such as financial inclusion and banking and payments reform. The Association has secured successive…
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UK households struggling on volatile incomes – for example those on zero-hour contracts or in part-time work – are five times more likely to turn to high-cost credit products such as rent to own and doorstep lending, new research from Citizens Advice shows. In its latest report, ‘Walking on Thin Ice’, the national charity says…
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Credit Kudos and Lending Works have announced a partnership that creates one of the first commercial applications of the new Open Banking standard. Credit bureau Credit Kudos and Lending Works, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, are partnering to enable customers to benefit from the UK’s Open Banking initiative, a secure way for banking customers to take…
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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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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…
Read moreNew 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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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 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…
Read moreProvident 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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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.…
Read morePawnbroker, 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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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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