Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research by StepChange reveals many households are struggling to cope financially, with women, younger adults and single parents disproportionately affected. Nearly a quarter (24%) of Welsh adults are showing at least one sign of financial distress according to new analysis by the debt harity. This includes 8% of the Welsh population experiencing severe debt…
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Seaside towns dominate this year’s rankings for the areas with the highest levels of personal insolvencies in the UK (year-end December 31 2018), according to research by UHY Hacker Young. The data suggests that these seaside towns are still a long way from recovering from the decades of contraction in their traditional coastal industries such…
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Latest research from Kensington Mortgages, the specialist mortgage lender, reveals that homeowners were borrowing more in the second quarter of 2019. Broken down by type, the figures show that self-employed borrowers are more conservative than first-time buyers. The average self-employed mortgage customer in the UK could have taken out a mortgage 29% larger than the…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the complaints figures for regulated firms for the first half of 2019. The data showed an increase in complaints from 3.91m in the second half (H2) of 2018 to 4.29m for the first half (H1) of 2019. The increase in complaints was mainly driven by a 34% increase…
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Equiniti Credit Services has announced that it has partnered with credit bureau and Account Information Service Provider (AISP), Credit Kudos. The partnership will enable Equiniti Credit Services to leverage Credit Kudos’ open banking APIs to deepen the credit affordability assessments that secured and unsecured lenders can perform via its platform, helping them to provide customers…
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Machine Learning (ML) is increasingly being used in UK financial services, according to findings of a joint survey conducted by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The survey, conducted in 2019, was sent to almost 300 firms, including banks, credit brokers, e-money institutions, financial market infrastructure firms, investment managers, insurers,…
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More than half (57%) of residential mortgage products currently available have a standard maximum mortgage term of up to 40 years according to new research from Moneyfacts. The figures show that 40-year mortgage products stand at 2,782, up from 2,412 products (55.55%) this time last year. Darren Cook, finance expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk, said “Historically, a…
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A third (33%) of consumers say they do not regularly save any money, according to new research by Lloyds Bank. Part of Lloyds Bank’s ‘How Britain Lives’ study, the UK-wide analysis conducted in partnership with YouGov, also found that 7% of UK adults have no savings whatsoever to fall back on if they lost their…
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The number of first-time buyers in August reached the highest level since just before the financial crisis, according to the latest mortgage trends data by UK Finance, with 35,010 mortgage completions for new buyers – an increase of 0.7% on August last year. During the month there were 18,640 new remortgages with additional borrowing, down…
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UK Finance has announced the appointments of Susan Allen, Head of Retail and Business Banking, Santander UK, and Charlotte Hogg, CEO, Visa Europe, to its board. Susan Allen is Head of Retail and Business Banking, Santander UK, and is responsible for the bank’s retail and business banking operations spanning 15 million customers and a nationwide…
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CYBG has appointed Dave Pickering to its Group Risk function as its new Head of Integration and Transformation Risk Oversight. As part of the Risk leadership team, Pickering will be responsible for the risk oversight of the programme to successfully integrate and transform Virgin Money, working closely with the Group’s Board and leadership teams on…
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Almost a third (29%) of consumers spend an average of £120 a year paying for unwanted policies, subscriptions, and memberships that they haven’t cancelled, according to new research by online bank Marcus by Goldman Sachs. Online subscription services (32%) are the most frequently forgotten subscriptions and policies to cancel, followed by gym memberships (26%) and magazine…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it plans to ban the way in which some car retailers, and other brokers in the motor finance sector, receive commission. Currently, some motor finance brokers receive commission which is linked to the interest rate that customers pay. The broker can set that rate and the FCA…
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