The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Andrew Barry Hart, the sole director, controller and ultimate owner of Wage Payment and Payday Loans Limited (WPPL), from performing any role in regulated financial services. The FCA has also cancelled WPPL’s interim permission and refused its applications for WPPL to be authorised to carry out regulated activities…
Read moreThe latest Financial Fraud Action (FFA) UK report, published today, reveals a 25% year-on-year increase in financial fraud losses for the first half of 2016 to £399.5 million. John Marsden, Head of ID and Fraud at Equifax said “Cyber and ID fraud dominate the fraud landscape, and online scams and attacks continue to rise. E-commerce…
Read moreThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Sonali Bank (UK) Limited (SBUK) £3,250,600 and has imposed a restriction, preventing it from accepting deposits from new customers for 168 days. It has also fined the bank’s former money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), Steven Smith, £17,900 and prohibited him from performing the MLRO or compliance oversight functions…
Read moreThe Money Charity has released statistics indicating that after years of steady falls, cases of mortgage arrears have risen for the second quarter in a row. According to the Financial Conduct Authority, at the end of Q2 2016 there were 218,279 mortgage loan accounts with arrears of more than 1.5% of the current loan balance. This…
Read moreSpiralling charges on unarranged overdrafts are adding millions of pounds to problem debt and they must be capped by the FCA, says StepChange Debt Charity. New figures from the charity, suggest that almost two thirds of people seeking its help with overdraft debts have regularly exceeded their limit and faced charges of £45 each time…
Read moreUlster Bank has sold off £2 billion tranche of loans to Cerberus. The portfolio consists 900 mortgages, across Ireland. Around 14% of the debt is based in Northern Ireland. A spokesman for Ulster Bank said: “Ulster Bank has confirmed the completion of a sale of significantly impaired loan portfolio, predominantly in the Republic of Ireland, enabling…
Read moreNew figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that new business in the point-of-sale (POS) consumer new car finance market grew 9% by value and 5% by volume in August, compared with the same month last year. The percentage of private new car sales financed by FLA members through the POS reached…
Read moreNew figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show growth of 16% in consumer finance new business in August, compared with the same month last year. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 17% compared with August 2015, while retail store and online credit new business increased by 6%…
Read moreAphility has introduced a secure, real time, certified digital bank verification capability by integrating DirectID from the online trust company. The IDCo to enable the verification of business and consumer income and expenditure data from UK Banks. This enhancement will enable customers and partners to undertake faster and more accurate affordability assessments and credit decisions delivering…
Read moreFollowing a decision by the United States Department of the Treasury(link is external) to designate the PacNet Group as a ‘significant transnational criminal organisation’, we understand that the ceasing of PacNet Group firms’ operations has led to some customer payments, including direct debits, not reaching creditors and firms. Firms affected by this should assess their payment…
Read moreFinancial services firms recorded a 2.6% reduction in new complaints between January and June 2016 compared to the previous six months, according to new complaints data published today by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The total number of complaints was 2.05 million. Payment protection insurance (PPI) is still the most complained about product. Complaints about current accounts…
Read moreAire, a credit scoring startup has confirmed authorisation with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The company also announced that it raised a further $2 million in funding earlier this year led by White Star Capital alongside Sunstone Capital and Accion Venture Lab. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Aneesh Varma said: “It’s a huge step for us and also for…
Read moreWonga has admitted that it double-charged 7,000 customers for their loans on Friday. It says an internal system error resulted in extra payments being taken from bank accounts. Wonga has promised that extra costs and charges incurred will be refunded. The short-term lender said that the rogue payments were refunded later on Friday, but may not yet…
Read more