The Industry View

General update Thanks to Colin Trend for spotting the headline that “UK consumer confidence falls to lowest level since 1974”. The headline UK consumer confidence index, a measure of how people view their personal finances and the wider economic outlook, dropped by 2% to -40 in May 2022, surpassing the previous record low of -39 set in July 2008 when the global banking system was imploding. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/20/uk-consumer-confidence-falls-to-lowest-level-since-1974 This comes as inflation rose to 9%… Read more

Ernst & Young and UK Finance on the Queen’s Speech and UK Financial Services regulation Christopher Woolard is very active in the media in his new role at Ernst & Young after leaving the FCA in 2021. I have picked up on Data Reform further on. His short summary focuses on the Financial Services & Markets Bill where the Government intends to focus on ‘cutting red tape’ from regulation, with a focus on innovative technologies… Read more

Bank of England rate increase and inflation warning – review of SFS figures At its meeting ending on 4 May 2022, the MPC voted by a majority of 6-3 to increase Bank Rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 1%. Those members in the minority preferred to increase Bank Rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 1.25%. Several economists have speculated that continuing to increase interest rates will not work where the underlying reasons for rising inflation… Read more

From the desk of Kevin Still I managed to speak to Brian Corr, FCA director of Retail Lending, at the CCTA event this week. I have flagged a number of topical items in our sector, including the delays in the HM Treasury consultation on Statutory Debt Repayment Plans (SDRPs) and the CONC 8 review. We also discussed when the Debt Packager policy statement will be issued. We discussed some of the other items covered in… Read more

General update Retail sales appear to be falling as the rising cost-of-living bites. Volumes fell by 1.4% in March 2022 following a fall of 0.5% in February 2022. Food store sales volumes fell by 1.1% in March 2022 and have fallen each month since November 2021. Car fuel sales volumes fell by 3.8% in March 2022 with other data sources indicating that some non-essential road travel had been reduced following record high petrol and diesel… Read more

A surge in credit card borrowing to a record high last month has prompted concerns that low-income households are turning to expensive forms of lending to cope with rising costs of food, clothing and fuel. Figures from the Bank of England (BoE) showed credit card borrowing jumped by £1.5 billion in February 2002 to £59.5 billion in March 2022. This is the highest since records began in 1993 and is pushing the total amount of unsecured lending up… Read more