201504 CM April

CONSUMER CREDIT
CONSUMER CREDIT ROUNDUP
Amanda Hulme gives an overview of all the goings on in the world of consumer credit.
IN BRIEF ...
STATISTICS RELEASED
THE Building Societies Association
(BSA) has released mortgage lending
statistics for 2014 showing that building
societies provided 26 percent of all mortgage
lending in the UK with gross lending of
£52.6 billion during the year, out of a total
of £204.4 billion lending by all mortgage
lenders. This performance, the BSA says,
was well above the sector’s more natural
market share of 19 percent. Over the year
societies approved mortgage loans to over
373,000 homebuyers. The BSA reckons that
competition will be stiff in 2015, especially
now that an increase in the bank base rate
this year looks to be out of the question,
even to the point of the Bank of England
stating that a drop in the rate, whilst unlikely,
is a tool that will be used if necessary.
BBA PUBLISHES STAFF BRIEFING
THE BBA has published the first of what
will be a series of briefings on vulnerable
customers. The purpose is to identify
best practice for banks and allow them
to develop effective policies towards this
group of customers. This briefing concerns
how to support customers with long-term
conditions (LTC) (defined as a physical or
FOLLOWING consultations last year, HM
Treasury has confirmed that the Bank of
England’s Financial Policy Committee
(FPC) is to have new powers over the
housing market with a view to protecting
financial stability. Rather than just making
recommendations as at present, the
FPC will be able to set limits on debt to
income ratios and loan to value ratios for
mortgages.
mental illness that lasts a year or longer
and that may require ongoing care, support
and treatment) and the ‘‘good outcomes”
that banks and their staff should seek
to achieve, such as establishing clear
procedures for gaining consent to store, use
and share information about a customer’s
diagnosis and LTC.
FPC NEW POWERS OVER MORTGAGES
Proposed legislation has been published
by the government which intends to
consult separately early in the new
Parliament on the FPC’s recommendations
for it to have new powers over the
buy-to-let market, with a view to building
an in-depth evidence base on how the
operation of the UK buy-to-let housing
market may carry risks to financial
stability.
26 April 2015 www.cicm.com
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