Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research by TotallyMoney and PwC has found that 10.7 million women are locked out of accessing mainstream financial products. The research also found that on average, women have a 10 point lower credit score than men, a gap that exists throughout their entire lifetime. Lenders are 16% less likely to provide women with pre-approved…
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Many of the self-employed who save into a private pension rarely change the cash contributions they make according to research by Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Employees’ pension contributions tend to be set as a fraction of their earnings – and so cash contributions rise with earnings. But many of…
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Kensington Mortgages the specialist mortgage lender, has announced that it has completed its sale to Barclays Bank. Barclays has acquired the business from funds affiliated with Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Sixth Street, which jointly owned the business since 2015. The acquisition allows Barclays to become one of the few major banks with a specialist mortgage…
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Latest Bank of England (BoE) data has shown that consumers borrowed in January with an additional £1.6 billion in consumer credit compared with £0.8 billion borrowed in December. This was split between £1.1 billion of borrowing on credit cards and £0.5 billion of borrowing through other forms of consumer credit. Credit figures show consumer credit…
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A survey by data company GfK shows that consumer confidence has unexpectedly bounced back from historic lows to hit the highest level since April 2022. GfK’s consumer confidence index has risen by seven points in February, although the headline score remains at a “severely depressed” -38. While confidence in the general economic situation over the…
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Global information and insights provider, TransUnion has announced the launch of its new Open Banking for gaming solution. The company’s categorisation engine, built with over a billion transactions incorporates more than 330 categories and sub-categories to give gaming operators a quick and easy way to manage their players and promote safer gaming. The Open Banking…
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The average woman in paid employment effectively works for free for nearly two months of the year compared to the average man in paid employment, according to analysis published by the TUC. The gender pay gap for all employees currently stands at 14.9%. This pay gap means that working women must wait 54 days, nearly…
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New research by Fluro has found a surge in personal loan requests as consumers consolidate their debts.. The study reveals that the UK consumer lending market has experienced a spike in activity in January 2023, with Fluro’s data tracking the highest numbers of loans requested since the summer. The year began with just over a…
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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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Data from Barclays has revealed that 91.2% of card transactions were contactless last year, up from 85.6% of eligible card transactions being contactless in 2021. The research found that the average contactless user made 220 ‘touch and go’ payments last year, up from 180 in 2021, with the average value per transaction rising 18.5 per cent…
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Consumer finance new business grew by 13% through 2022 compared to the previous year according to the latest Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) data. The credit card and personal loan sectors together reported new business up by 17% in 2022 compared to 2021, despite credit card rates reaching their highest level since 1998 and continued…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business fell by 4% in December 2022 compared with the same month in 2021. In 2022 as a whole, new business was 13% higher than in 2021. The credit card and personal loan sectors together reported a fall in new…
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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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