Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Credit card spending and personal loan borrowing both increased in the first quarter of 2022, returning to pre-Covid trends as the last restrictions were ended according to new analysis by UK Finance. Total credit card spending was £50.4 billion, with March seeing the second highest spending since the pandemic. There was a significant increase in…
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Growth in consumer credit lending is being rapidly outpaced by the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market according new research by Freedom Finance. Industry figures estimate that BNPL lending is likely to increase by 52% to well over £20 billion in 2022 compared to the previous year. The FCA estimates that the industry was worth £2.7…
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Latest Bank of England data has indicated that credit card borrowing is rising at its fastest annual rate in 17 years. The annual growth rate for credit card borrowing hit 11.6% in April – the highest figure since November 2005. The figures also reveal that the rate for all consumer credit increased to 5.7% in…
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Wealth trade association, PIMFA has called for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to be given the power to direct Ofcom to act over potentially fraudulent online adverts or user-generated content that appear on search engine and social media platforms in evidence to MPs scrutinising the Online Safety Bill today. Tim Fassam, Director of Government Relations…
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Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) popularity as an alternative payment option, has been highlighted by GlobalData’s latest report, revealing that the global transaction value for BNPL payments reached $120 billion in 2021, and is set to reach $576 billion by 2026. BNPL made up 2.3% of the global ecommerce market, or, in other words, for every…
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New figures from the Building Societies Association (BSA) have indicated that mortgage lending by building societies in the first three months of this year was on a par with lending in the same period last year when the Stamp Duty holiday was in operation. Both lending and approvals were higher in January-March 2022 than they…
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Equity release plan sales surged by 21% as the value of equity released increased by 30% as older homeowners released an average of £111,500 in property wealth in the first three months of the year, data from equity release adviser Key Later Life Finance shows. Plan sales surged by 21.4% in the first three months…
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New research by UK Finance has found that the stock of outstanding interest-only mortgages fell by 15 per cent in 2021, compared with the position at the end of 2020. The concerted industry strategy to manage down the size and risk profile of the interest-only book has seen it reduce by over two thirds since…
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Membership of Credit Unions has risen to an all-time high, with these financial institutions lending more money than ever as the cost-of-living crisis worsens. The Bank of England’s latest data shows that over 1.9 million people in the UK are now members of a Credit Union. Borrowing from Credit Unions is particularly common in Northern…
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Consumer confidence has dipped to a record low, with GFK’s confidence index dropping two points to -40 in May, with this a point lower than the previous record of -39 set in July 2008. The statistics indicate that consumer confidence is at its lowest point since records began in 1974. Joe Staton, Client Strategy Director,…
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Millions of people in communities across the UK will see their ability to access cash protected by new powers set out by the Government. Under the new rules, the financial regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – will be granted new powers over the UK’s largest banks and building societies, to ensure that cash…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is set to introduce new powers to more swiftly cancel or change what regulated activities firms are permitted to do. The new power is available following a change in the law allowing the FCA to streamline and shorten the removals process. The FCA will provide a firm with two warnings if it believes it is not using…
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New research by Yorkshire Building Society has found that nearly nine out of ten (87%) 11-18-year-olds have limited knowledge about managing money with 14% say they know nothing at all about money management. Only around a third (36%) of 11-18-year-olds in the UK surveyed say they have learnt about finances at school despite it being…
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