Banks join forces to encourage responsible loan lenders

Thu, 30 Mar 2006

A new campaign to ensure loan lenders are responsible when giving consumers credit has been launched by a group of leading high street banks.

The loan lenders HSBC, HBOS, Lloyds TSB and RBS are set to work alongside the credit reference agency Callcredit to make sure they correctly assess their customer's level of debt and ability to make repayments.

Callcredit will be helping the loan lenders accurately assess their customers' needs by producing three key reports on all the customers using the four loan lenders' financial services.

The reports will provide details of customers who are severely in debt as well as those whose financial positions need monitoring. The agency will also provide daily alerts for customers whose fluctuating levels of debt could concern for the loan lenders.

For customers who are applying for credit such as a personal loan or credit card, the participating banks can now get an affordability check done on the customer.

This initiative has been under development for two years and is finally set to go live with the hope it will eventually become an industry-wide initiative with all loan lenders.

It aims to ensure borrowers are protected and that the spiralling levels of debt in the country do not get out of control, causing possible long-term adverse effects on the UK economy.

"The government wants more customer protection for borrowers and the lenders want to provide a better service to their customers," explained Callcredit's managing director John McAndrew.

"It is true that only a small percentage of customers are overindebted and our initiative provides additional opportunities to offer these customers appropriate advice and support," he added.

The initiative should help consumers better manage their finances, understanding whether or not they are in a position to take advantage of financial products such as personal loans or credit cards.

add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.