Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
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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The Bank of England has revealed that annual growth in consumer credit continued to slow, falling to 5.6% in May, in its monthly Money and Credit update. The monthly flow of consumer credit in May was broadly in line with the average since July 2018, at £0.8 billion. The Bank of England gross lending stats…
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Traditional, call centre-focused debt collection practices are becoming a thing of the past, as more and more debt collection agencies (DCA’s) turn to multi-channel communication strategies to improve customer experience and increase engagement. While customer engagement and experience are most commonly associated with retail businesses, within the credit, collections and insolvency sector, there is a…
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In the first three months of 2019, the number of decrees against Scottish businesses dropped by 25 percent, compared to the same period of 2018, according to figures released by the Registry Trust. The total of 561 was the lowest of any quarter on record. The total value of decrees against businesses in the first…
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