Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A new report from Lloyds Merchant Services has found that consumers are increasingly looking for payment flexibility. 61% of adopters say they are more likely to shop with a retailer offering Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), rising to 63% for point-of-sale (POS) finance. Half (50%) are comfortable using BNPL for mid-ticket purchases between £100 and…
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Criminals stole £629.3 million in the first half of the year, a three per cent increase on the same period in 2024. There were over 2.09 million confirmed cases of fraud, a 17 per cent increase on this time last year according to latest UK Finance data. There was a 12% increase in financial losses from authorised…
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Darlington Building Society has announced the appointment of Alex Windle as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Windle will take over as CEO in April next year when Andrew Craddock steps down after seven years. Windle had an early career in commercial, marketing and strategy roles at Vodafone. He served as UK Marketing Director, first at LG…
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Consumer confidence has risen by two points in the past month, according to latest figures by GfK. The figures still leave the index in negative territory with consumer confidence at –17, but expectations for the general economy over the next 12 months increased by two points. There was also an increase in consumers purchasing big-ticket…
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Australian technology and debt collection provider Credit Clear has announced it has entered into a binding agreement to purchase debt collection agency (DCA) ARC (Europe) pending FCA approval. Credit Clear says that the acquisition marks a major milestone for the company, expanding its footprint into the UK and European markets, adding immediate scale and unlocking cross-sell opportunities…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reported that financial services firms paid out £283 million in redress for complaints in the first half of 2025, a 20% increase from £236 million in the previous half. The FCA received 1.85 million complaints, marking a 3.6% rise compared to the second half of 2024. Complaints about banking and…
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The boss of a property maintenance company who lied about his turnover to secure a maximum-value Covid Bounce Back Loan has been jailed. Craig Smith set up C.A.S. Property Maintenance (Midlands) Limited in April 2020. The 42-year-old applied for a Covid Bounce Back Loan in August 2020 using his own name as the loans were…
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New figures from affordable credit provider Salad demonstrated that it has saved more than 90,000 workers over £41 million pounds in interest during 2024-25. The firm, which lends to people with poor or impaired credit scores who want and can afford to repay small sum loans, calculated that its customers saved an average of £454…
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Latest buy-to-let lending by UK Finance for Quarter 2 (Q2) has found that there were 49,590 new buy-to-let loans advanced in the UK, worth £8.8 billion. This was relatively flat compared with the same quarter in the previous year, down 2.6 per cent by number (0.2 per cent by value). The average gross buy-to-let rental…
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Energy UK is calling for sector regulator Ofgem to lose some of its current responsibilities to create a streamlined and more focused organisation better equipped to carry out its main duties. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is currently carrying out a review of Ofgem’s performance and its future role, and in a paper…
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Two key enablers of a scheme designed to undermine insolvency legislation by allowing business owners to keep their assets and drop debts have been banned as company directors. Sisters Karen Mortimer and Joanna Seawright put the creditors of 138 companies at risk of financial loss after taking control of the businesses which were referred to…
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Latest data from Accountant in Bankruptcy has found that business insolvencies in Scotland decreased by 5% to 298 in 2025-26 Quarter 2 (Q2) from 313 in 2024-25 Q2. Business insolvency numbers in Scotland for 2025-2026 Q2 decreased by 10% compared to last quarter. Commenting on the latest insolvency stats, Emma Widdowson, chair of R3 in…
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Latest Accountant in Bankruptcy data has shown that personal insolvencies in Scotland decreased by 8% to 1,780 in 2025-26 Quarter 2 (Q1), down from 1,935 in Q1 and a decrease of 113 (6%) compared with 2024-25 Q2. There was a significant reduction in the number of Protected Trust Deeds (PTD) and a small reduction in…
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