Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Council of Mortgage Lenders has published it’s latest home buying figures which indicate that home buying activity up 7% in February. Looking on a seasonally adjusted basis, first-time buyer and home mover activity increased by value month-on-month and year-on-year. Buy-to-let house purchase and remortgage activity remained unchanged by volume and by value month-on-month, but…
Read more
With the implementation date just over a year away, there is still a lot of conjecture surrounding the impending General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), particularly around its appropriateness and applicability once the UK leaves the EU. One thing that is clear, however, is that now is the time for any firm handling personal data to…
Read more
New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business fell 3% in February, compared with the same month in 2016. Credit card and personal loan new business together fell by 4% compared with February 2016, while retail store and online credit new business was down by 5%.…
Read more
Oakam has enhanced its mobile app with the launch of Oakam Grow, a new feature that uses gamification to make consumer finance more engaging, rewarding and inclusive. Oakam Grow builds on the UK-based consumer lender’s application of behavioural science to encourage the development of positive credit habits, and supports its strategy to bring digital disruption to the largely analogue micro-credit…
Read more
MortgageGym.com, the world’s only regulated mortgage robo-adviser, will be launched in the UK in the coming months. The service will allow UK homebuyers to complete their mortgage application online in 15 minutes through a free, online portal combining robo- and live-broker advice. Mortgage Gym empowers brokers to acquire customers independently, operate a paperless business and…
Read more
Consumer credit continues to climb in the latest data release from the Bank of England. Key numbers include: Total outstanding consumer credit (excluding student loans and property related debt) hit £196bn The collective credit card balance is £67.3bn Consumers borrowed an additional £1.4bn in February alone Approvals of loans secured on dwellings fell slightly in…
Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed new rules to help customers who are in persistent credit card debt. This follows the FCA’s study of the UK credit card market, which found significant concerns about the scale extent and nature of problem credit card debt. Under the FCA’s definition, credit card customers are in persistent…
Read more
Quint Group has appointed Nicola Richardson as it’s new CRM Manager to help devise and drive the CRM strategy for the brand and to continue the site’s growth. Richardson brings ten years of CRM experience into her new role, having previously worked at price comparison site heavyweight moneysupermarket.com where she was involved in the delivery and optimisation…
Read moreConsumer expectations about house prices have bounced back to pre-EU Referendum levels after a period when the immediate ramifications of the vote were unclear according to data from the Building Societies Association Property Tracker survey. Almost half of consumers (49%) expect house prices to rise over the next 12 months. Just 10% expect them to…
Read more
The share of British adults concerned about their future financial health has been slowly but steadily increasing since June 2016, according to a new survey of over 2,000 British adults by insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, and ComRes. Almost 1 in 5 (19%) British adults think their personal financial situation will worsen over the next…
Read more
The proportion of first-time buyers relying on inherited wealth or loans from the ‘bank of mum and dad’ has reached a historic high and the trend looks set to continue, new research by the Social Mobility Commission has revealed. The Commission warns that the increasing trend will have damaging consequences for social mobility as young people on…
Read more
People’s confidence in their own finances grew stronger in February, according to the latest Lloyds Bank Spending Power Report. As the UK prepares to trigger Article 50, Lloyds Bank’s regular consumer survey – conducted in conjunction with Ipsos MORI – found that positivity towards personal finances increased by 5pp to 68% last month. That’s marginally…
Read more
Equifax, has launched a bespoke Document Verifier solution to provide faster identity authentication for financial product applications using facial recognition. The solution can verify whether an applicant is genuine in a matter of seconds by comparing a live image of the applicant with a photograph of their passport or driving licence, both taken on a…
Read more