Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) against Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) firms have jumped 36% over the last three years according to research by Creditspring. The research found that 220 complaints were made against BNPL firms during 2022, compared to 208 in the previous year and 162 in 2020. Creditspring says that the…
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Zopa has announced that it is set to acquire buy now pay later (BNPL) specialist DivideBuy. Dividebuy provides point-of-sale (POS) finance technology and lending platforms. The transaction, which will complete in the next few months, marks Zopa’s first acquisition and follows just weeks after the digital lender raised a £75 million to fund acquisitions. DivideBuy…
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The government has announced its intention to regulate interest-free Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) products. The government consulted on policy options to deliver a proportionate approach to regulation in October 2021, followed by a consultation response in June 2022. It is now consulting on the proposed draft legislation that will bring BNPL into Financial Conduct Authority regulation.…
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Consumers Spent £8 billion online in January whilst the use Use of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) rose to 12% according to research by Adobe analytics The data shows that UK consumers spent £8 billion online in January, 26.7% less than in December 2022, and a year-on year decrease of 1.4%. It also identified an…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has publicly censured Amigo Loans for failing to conduct adequate affordability checks on borrowers and guarantors. The FCA says it would have imposed a fine of £72.9 million however Amigo demonstrated that this would cause it serious financial hardship. A fine would also have threatened Amigo’s ability to meet its…
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New research by Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found that billions of pounds loaned by the ‘bank of mum and dad’ to help with property purchases and to boost the finances of newly married offspring are helping to fuel rising levels of inequality. The research found that £17 billion is gifted or loaned informally…
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New figures out this week from the Bank of England show that loans made to members of the UK’s 388 member-owned, not for profit credit unions stood at a record high of £1.92 billion in the third quarter of 2022. This was £51 million higher than the previous quarter and up £255 million compared with…
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Homeowners borrowed £6.2 billion against the value of their properties through equity release in 2022, with this marking a 29% increase on 2021’s total latest Equity Release Council figures have indicated. The figures show that the total has more than doubled in size since 2017, when £3.06 billon was released. The number of owners who…
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Analysis from Freedom Finance has found that Credit Unions are lending record sums to borrowers in the UK as the cost of borrowing continues to rise. The latest Freedom Finance Credit Monitor revealed that average household quoted rates on credit cards hit 22.46%, their highest levels since 1998, while personal loans posted their highest quarterly…
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Over a third (34%) of UK shoppers have now used Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to spread the cost of purchases1, and thousands chose to use BNPL for the first time over the 2022 festive season. That’s according to the latest BNPL Barometer from Equifax, one of the UK’s big three credit reference agencies.…
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High-cost short-term specialist lender, Indigo Michael trading as Tappily and SafetyNet has entered administration. Joseph O’Connor, Clare Kennedy and Simon Appell of AlixPartners UK LLP have been appointed Joint Administrators. Indigo Michael employs roughly 250 people and has about 150,000 active customers. The company is a high-cost lender which provides customers with running account credit…
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New equity release lending hit £1.5bn in the third quarter with the average customer borrowing more than £114,000, according research by adviser company, Key. Plan sales grew by 29% in the three months to September 30th to 13,341 compared with the same quarter last year while the value of new equity released rose to £1.525…
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Analysis from Freedom Finance found that more and more people in the UK are taking out loans from Credit Unions as the cost of borrowing reaches new highs. The latest data released by the Bank of England revealed that 1.94 million people in the UK were members of a Credit Union in the second quarter…
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