Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Latest figures from the Bank of England (BoE) has indicated that consumers borrowed a net £1.5 billion on credit cards in February, the highest monthly amount since records began in 1993. The figures showed that lending to consumers rose by the most in nearly five years in February, jumping 90% compared to January. Consumer credit…
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The Chancellor’s failure to support families through the cost of living crisis will mean that absolute poverty is expected to rise by 1.3 million people next year according to the Resolution Foundation’s analysis of Spring Statement 2022. Inflation Nation shows that faced with an unprecedented squeeze on family’s household finances and a significant boost to…
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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has criticised Lloyds and Barclays for mistakes made when giving information to price comparison websites, potentially misleading customers and breaking open banking rules. The CMA outlined a number of instances where the two banks breached the 2017 Retail Banking Market Investigation Order in relation to open APIs. The CMA said both…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed that the Financial Ombudsman Services (FOS) compensation limit will increase from £350,000 to £375,000 from 1st April. The limit will change to £375,000 for complaints referred after this date about acts or omissions by firms on or after 1st April 2019. For complaints before 1st April 2019, the…
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Rules introduced in 2014 by the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) to restrict the amount mortgage applicants could borrow may be reversed following a review by the Bank of England (BoE). Since 2014, Banks have had a limit on the number of mortgages they can offer where someone is borrowing more than 4.5 times their salary.…
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The Bank of England’s latest Financial Stability Report which sets out the Financial Policy Committee’s (FPC) agenda has urged banks to remember the pressures consumers and businesses still face despite the rapid rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine. The FPC also said that while businesses and individuals have emerged largely stable from the pandemic, there are…
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New data from Intuit QuickBooks has highlighted the burden of late payments on already financially stretched small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with the average amount figure owed being £21,373. The figure represents more than two thirds (67%) of typical SMB monthly turnover. The company’s Late Payments Bulletin provides a snapshot of the late payments issues…
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New research by Experian has revealed that the average debt in the UK has dropped by 32% (nearly one third) over the past year of living with the enforced Covid-19 lockdowns. The average credit balance across all accounts, excluding mortgages, is now £7,851 – when it was £11,615 at the start of March 2020 and…
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New research by Key has indicated that retired households saw their average disposable incomes fall by 12% last year. The analysis shows average disposable incomes for retired people fell in the financial year ending 2020 from the previous year by nearly 12% with much of the cut coming from lower private pension income and investment…
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iSupply Energy is to pay out £1.5 million in redress after the supplier overcharged around 4,400 of its customers on default tariffs and failed to alert the regulator (Ofgem) and put things right quickly. The price cap for 11 million customers on default tariffs came into force on 1st January 2019 with all energy suppliers…
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In recent years, the customer retail journey has been through a period of significant change across several industries – largely due to the internet and related technologies. In today’s connected society, purchase decisions can be made from all manner of devices and locations. Often a strong wi-fi signal and a spare five minutes can be…
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Late payments are a growing concern for businesses according to the latest Lloyds Bank Business Barometer. The survey says a third (33% of businesses who were paid late in the last year did not chase outstanding payments, Fear of damaging valuable customer relationships was the biggest rationale by some margin, cited by two thirds (62%)…
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Having already made significant progress across industries like finance and healthcare, I believe artificial intelligence (AI) is naturally placed to radically transform the legal sector. Indeed, the pace of technological change in the last decade means that businesses are constantly exploring new AI-driven solutions to help them gain a competitive advantage and survive in the…
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