CCTA View

Last month Volkswagen Financial Services published provisional figures for 2017 which revealed their number of worldwide customer financial contracts is expected to rise by 5.2% to 6.85 million.[1] In the UK, Volkswagen’s loan book is £15million, so it’s not surprising that Volkswagen has made an application for a UK banking license in order to continue providing consumer finance after Britain’s …

The CCTA welcomes the IFS report today, but we would guard against rash decisions on blunt instruments such as rate-capping suggested by some third parties. The ongoing dialogue and regulatory changes are resulting in meaningful solutions and positive outcomes for consumers. Further regulatory instruments and unwise intervention would mean reduced access credit and increased cost of credit. It should also …

The simplistic view of John McDonnell and others is credit equals debt, therefore get rid of the credit industry and you get rid of debt. Her Majesty’s Opposition is very clear that Britain is in the grip of a personal debt crisis. In a series of articles over the Christmas period, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, warned of an “alarming …

Until recently, many regulators have relied on aggregated data from larger lenders to monitor which lenders and products are driving credit growth. However, this data doesn’t include use of short-term high cost credit and non-mainstream products that many people with low incomes rely on. It also doesn’t show overall debts across different lenders and products. It is often questioned how …

We applaud that Credit Unions are continuing to help raise awareness of anti-loan shark campaigns, as the need for access to affordable, regulated credit remains more vital than ever. A release published by ABCUL on 15th December, highlights that an estimated 310,000 households nationally are borrowing from illegal money lenders, many of whom charge exorbitant rates of interest to trap …

As Christmas consumer spending heads towards its final hurdle, retailers will no doubt be hoping for a continuance of the slight uplift in sales as reported by the Office of National Statistics last week. Earlier this year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG reported like-for-like sales across the sector rose by a “meagre” 0.6% in November compared to the …

As we approach 2018 – and with it GDPR – we wanted to share the foresight of Mike Bradford from Regulatory Strategies Ltd, who has drawn up what he sees from clients as being ‘front of mind’ and what we consider to be the likely trends for next year. Likely trends and actions in 2018: There will inevitably be increased …

The Times has reported today that the FCA is investigating the car finance division of Provident Financial – Times commentary is below.  This should be a clarion call to all non standard HP providers to double check their credit worthiness and affordability checks. Times commentary: How much worse can it get for embattled shareholders in Provident Financial? In a brief …

This week the Financial Conduct Authority published a report detailing consumer experiences of illegal lending in the UK. The report highlights some of the experiences of ‘hard-to-reach’ consumers and the effects that illegal lending has had upon them. However, the report notes the difficulty in establishing hard evidence of the number of consumers involved with unregulated lenders, due to the …

Followers of Treasury Select Committee Chair, Nicky Morgan MP will have anticipated the announcement on 8th November that the TSC has launched a formal inquiry into household finances, honing in on income, savings and debt. The inquiry aims to consider the state of UK household balance sheets, including whether households are saving adequately in the current economic environment, problematic and …

As a curtain-raiser for CCTA Conference week, I was joined in the studio by two experts from the worlds of consumer advocacy and the law: Mick McAteer of The Financial Inclusion Centre and Nikki Worden of the law firm, Osborne Clarke. Nikki is a specialist in the regulation of financial services having previously worked at Addleshaw Goddard and in-house at MBNA for eleven years. …

On the credit card announcement, what was especially noticeable was that the substantive response came from the FCA, rather than Government Ministers.  Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss MP, offered a few brief sentences off the back of McDonnell’s speech, but it was left to the FCA’s Andrew Bailey to give us the true indication of what ‘the Government’ …