Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Consumers cut back on credit card borrowing in May, according to figures from the Bank of England. Consumer borrowing fell to a four-month low of £800 million in May, from £1.4 billion in April, with May’s total also below the pre-pandemic average of £1bn. Analysis shows that credit card loans accounted for £400 million of…
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The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its provisional decision on remedies for the card-acquiring market review, following its initial consultation earlier this year. Card-acquiring services are crucial to the UK economy because they enable merchants, like newsagents and supermarkets, to accept card payments. This means, every day, people can pay for goods they need, including…
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The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received nearly 25,000 complaints about current accounts in the year to March, more than any other product. FOS says a big chunk of these were from victims of authorised fraud, such as customers being tricked into transferring money into other accounts often by scammers posing as their bank. Complaints to…
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Regulation of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) credit retail products could prevent up to 876,000 consumers from getting into unmanageable debt this year, according to new research from Barclays and StepChange. The study shows that the rising cost of living is having a direct impact on the popularity of BNPL purchases – over a third…
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The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has announced that it will conduct two market reviews of card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard. The first review will look at why there was a fivefold post-Brexit increase in the cross-border interchange fee that Mastercard and Visa charged retailers for consumer purchases by phone or online in the…
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The Government has announced new plans for the regulation of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). Under the new rules lenders will be required to ensure loans are affordable and rules will be amended to ensure advertisements are fair, clear and not misleading. The Government will expand rules to cover other forms of unsecured short-term credit…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a list of funeral plan providers it intends to authorise when the pre-paid funeral plans industry comes under its regulation from 29th July. 24 firms are on the list, including the largest funeral plan providers. Together these firms hold approximately 87% of existing customer plans. The FCA is…
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The Government has announced a major reform of the Consumer Credit Act, with this marking an effort to modernise the framework for credit firms. Ministers are looking to give more power to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of the changes, which the Government said would enable the regulator to quickly respond to developments…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is planning tougher curbs on bank branch closures, saying Banks and Building Societies will have to provide greater justification for closing a branch or cutting opening hours. The FCA is also consulting on requirements for more detailed analysis on how firms assess the impact on customers when they plan to…
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Guarantor loan provider, TFS Loans (in administration) has been fined £811,900 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in relation to deficient affordability checks on 3,150 guarantors in its consumer credit business. The FCA has also imposed a requirement on TFS to redress the guarantors that were harmed by the firm not conducting appropriate checks. TFS…
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Richard Lloyd OBE has become Interim Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority, as previously announced on 4th February 2022. Lloyd takes over from Charles Randell CBE, who stood down yesterday after four years as Chair. Randell took up his role as Chair of the FCA and Payment Systems Regulator’s (PSR) Boards in April 2018. The…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Helen Charlton as the Chair of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, and Andy Mielczarek as the Chair of the FCA Smaller Business Practitioner Panel, succeeding Wanda Goldwag and Marlene Shiels respectively. The Consumer and Smaller Business Practitioner Panels are independent, statutory panels representing the interests of consumers and…
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The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has announced its plans that will see around 400 more financial firms provide Confirmation of Payee (CoP). This essential fraud protection service will increase coverage from 92% of transactions made via Faster Payments (FPS) and CHAPS (when you make a payment transfer from one account to another) to 99% worth…
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