Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
As the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets to decide whether to impose a further rise in interest rates, the majority of Britons are already cutting back on their spending.W ith inflation at a 40-year high, the Bank of England’s efforts to cool it down by raising interest rates three times since December last year, has…
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More than one in five (22%) small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that needed external finance and/or capital over the last couple of years were unable to access it according to research by Manx Financial Group. Over a quarter (27%) have had to stop or pause an area of their business because of a lack…
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Half (49%) of university students and graduates said that the prospect of student debt made them think twice about taking up their place at university, according to new research from credit reference agency Equifax. The large debt associated with attending university was enough to make graduates think twice, even though they go on to earn £10,000…
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The June 2022 Directors’ Economic Confidence Index, which measures business leader optimism in prospects for the UK economy, fell to -60 in June, its lowest level since the early months of the pandemic, down from -45 in April. Of those that said they were pessimistic about the prospects for the UK economy, the overwhelmingly most…
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Almost one-fifth of UK credit card users (19%) have missed a credit card repayment within the past six months due to the rising cost-of-living, according to new research by comparethemarket.com. The research is published as the Office for National Statistics revealed that prices across the economy are rising by 9.1% a year, squeezing household budgets.…
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Suspending deductions from Universal Credit for Government debt would help plug the gap caused by the shortfall between the Government’s support measures and wider price increases for over a million low-income households, according to new research revealed today by StepChange Debt Charity. The effect of deductions is especially pernicious due to the rising cost of living. The…
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Despite the plethora of innovative new software on the market, nearly half (49%) of financial professionals are still using Excel spreadsheets to log information and updates on customer payments into their business according to research by Visma | Onguard. The figure represents a slight increase on 2021 levels (46%), highlighting that the industry’s reliance on…
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Remortgage sales hit 92,558 in Q4 2021, marking the highest level of activity since before the pandemic according to analysis from digital lender Freedom Finance. The research shows that remortgage sales outnumbered all other types of home loans for the first time since the third quarter of 2020. Separately, sales of mortgages for first-time buyers…
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Coventry Building Society has announced that it has appointed Richard Bowles as Chief Risk Officer. Bowles, who has around 20 years of experience in financial services, will join from TSB later this year, where he has been Interim Chief Risk Officer since March. Prior to that, he had been the bank’s prudential risk oversight director…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for June 2022 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,786.6 billion at the end of April 2022. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £64,286 and per adult was £33,780, around 105.3% of average earnings Net mortgage lending rose by…
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Latest figures from the British Retail Consortium have shown that shop price annual inflation accelerated to 3.1% in June, up from 2.8% in May. The rise is above the 12- and 6-month average price increases of 1.0% and 2.3%, respectively. This marks the highest rate of inflation since September 2008. Food inflation strongly accelerated to…
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UK Finance’s latest fraud report has shown that a total of over £1.3 billion was stolen by criminals through authorised and unauthorised fraud in 2021. The banking and finance industry prevented a further £1.4 billion of unauthorised fraud from getting into the hands of criminals. Unauthorised financial fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking and…
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Business outsourcing specialist Sigma Connected has been awarded a contract by business energy and water operator Yu Energy to provide contact centre support for outbound collections. The results Sigma Connected has delivered has already seen the team increase by 50% in order to handle more accounts. The contract is being operated by Sigma Connected from…
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