Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Nearly one in three UK households are worried about paying their winter bills, according to new figures from Ocean Finance. With energy costs rising faster than many can cope with, families face a tough few months ahead whilst Ofgem warns that bills could rise by £75 next spring. The survey also revealed that 33% of…
Read more
New YouGov polling by StepChange Debt Charity reveals more than one in four adults (27%), equivalent to around 14.3 million people, will struggle to afford Christmas this year, which rises to almost one in three (31%) among parents with children at home. With the cost of living still stubbornly high and millions struggling to make…
Read more
Ofcom has fined Virgin Media £23.8 million, after it disconnected telecare customers during its programme to migrate customers to digital landlines. Landline phone calls have traditionally been delivered over a copper-based network known as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This network is beyond its intended lifespan and is becoming increasingly unreliable, so it needs…
Read more
A company claiming to provide financial services, which received around £175,000 from a client but failed to deliver promised services, has been shut down. Basic Prime Limited claimed to provide trade finance guarantees and credit enhancement services but was suspected by Insolvency Service investigators of operating an advance fee fraud scheme. The company at no…
Read more
Fairer Finance has announced that it has appointed Charles Randell CBE to its independent Consumer Advisory Board, strengthening its external challenge and oversight of the consumer group. Randell is the former chair of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator and has previously served as a member of the Bank of England’s Prudential…
Read more
Latest figures from the Building Societies Association (BSA) has shown that in the six months to September 2025, building societies and the two mutual-owned banks increased their mortgage balances by £7.5 billion, to £493 billion and grew cash savings balances by £8.8 billion, to £496 billion. Building societies and mutual-owned banks hold 29% of the…
Read more
New data from UK Finance has found that later life loans rose 18.4 per cent with 39,950 loans taken out in Quarter 3 (Q3). The value of lending was £6.5 billion, which was up 24.7 per cent compared with the same quarter a year previously. There were 6,040 new lifetime mortgages advanced in Q3, up…
Read more
GB Bank has announced the promotion of three team members as part of the bank’s ongoing commitment to intermediary relationships and growing lending ambitions. Chris Chapman has been promoted to Head of Lending Operations, where he will oversee the full lending and operations teams. Jude Miranda has stepped into the role of Customer Onboarding &…
Read more
A snap poll of over 500 business leaders following the Chancellor’s Budget Statement by the Institute of Director has found that 80% feel negative about the Autumn Budget. A similar snap poll of business leaders following the 2024 Autumn Budget found that 67% felt negative. In terms of the individual policies announced by the Chancellor, those viewed…
Read more
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) plans to increase its levy on financial firms by an extra £16 million. The proposals are to increase the current levy of £70 million to £86 million by 2026/27. The FOS is also consulting on raising its case fee from £650 to £680, in line with inflation. The ombudsman also…
Read more
Credit Connect hosted its Autumn Credit & Collections events series in Manchester last week at the Midland Hotel. The event, which concludes the Credit Connect event series for 2025, included the Commercial Credit & Collection Conference, Credit & Collections Technology Think Tank and the 8th Credit & Collections Technology Awards. The day kicked off with…
Read more
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced the autumn budget for 2025. Commenting on the Budget, James Burgess, Head of Commercial and Insolvency expert at Atradius UK, said “Personal tax changes, including freezing all personal income tax thresholds until 2030-31, will potentially curb spending and weaken demand, further pressuring business revenues at a time when businesses are…
Read more
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced the autumn budget for 2025. Commenting on the Budget, Vikki Brownridge, CEO at StepChange said “Today’s announcement of the removal of the two-child limit is an immediate, cost-effective way to lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. It is a decisive move that will reduce the risk of…
Read more