Illegal money lending awareness

Published 01 April 2025

This Live Learning event will raise awareness of illegal lending schemes and the potential impact and consequences of borrowing from loan sharks. The session is aimed at all staff levels and will help firms understand and identify signs of victims of illegal money lending when dealing with their customers. This content can be accessed by logging into CCTA Academy.

Movement on access to credit

Published 08 November 2024

Access to credit has always been central to the work of the CCTA since it was founded over 130 years ago. We have a long-standing project to protect access to responsible credit for customers that often struggle to borrow elsewhere. In recent months, we have seen a greater interest in access to credit and financial inclusion from a range of external stakeholders which as been encouraging.

High cost credit market

Published 20 August 2024

The CCTA position is set out here. This includes points made in response to questions by the FCA. The regulator’s questions and their occasional response is captured in purple. Questions from CCTA are in green.

What would be in the CCTA Manifesto?

Published 02 July 2024

As we head towards polling day for the general election on 4 July, we have now seen the manifestos from all the main political parties. The purpose of a manifesto is to outline the steps a party would take, if they get the opportunity to form a government. From what we have seen most of the 2024 manifestos have been light on the detail around consumer credit and financial inclusion – understandably there are other issues that grab the headlines like NHS waiting lists and illegal migration.

Illegal lending update

Published 28 June 2023

Those of you that joined our online Summer 2023 Summit on 27 June will have heard me talk about the imminent launch of a new report into illegal lending by Fair4All. I have spoken about this in the past and I was delighted to be involved on the sounding board that helped guide the report. We also had the research lead, Niall Alexander, speak at a past CCTA Summit.

Minister talks about access to credit

Published 20 April 2023

We are always interested in hearing from Andrew Griffith, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. He is also referred to as the city minister because financial services fall within his area of responsibility. So when he spoke at the Mansion House about Financial Literacy and Inclusion, it was good to hear him talking about the importance of access to credit.

Illegal money lending

Published 29 November 2022

Many CCTA members worry about the growth of illegal lending in the UK and have asked how they can help.  This workshop was created in partnership with the Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT). The IMLT explained what we should be looking for and discussed the best way to refer suspected instances of illegal money lending to the team.

CCTA comment on CSJ report on tackling illegal money lending

Published 21 March 2022

We welcome this new report and this study into the scale of illegal money lending. Even before the current cost of living crisis, we have talked about the increasing problem of loan sharks and the real pain they cause to families across the UK. It is now estimated that over one million people are relying on illegal lenders.

What will the FCA’s ‘Consumer Duty’ mean for access to credit

Published 24 November 2021

I spoke last week at an event exploring the FCA’s proposed ‘Consumer Duty’. The Duty is positioned as asking firms to put themselves in the shoes of the customer and consider if they would like to be treated how their firm treats customers. We are concerned that it is a much more radical change in the relationship between consumer and lender and that was my warning.

Plans announced for new UK wide No interest loan scheme pilot

Published 07 September 2021

Fair4All Finance is teaming up with Toynbee Hall and Fair By Design to deliver a No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) pilot, the first of its scale across the UK, with £3.8m in funding from HM Treasury and up to £1m of lending capital from each devolved administration, matched in England by Fair4All Finance.

Friends and family can’t pick up the slack

Published 20 May 2021

It has been a busy time period for alternative lending sector. In recent years it has faced many challenges including a constantly changing approach from the Financial Ombudsman Service and the impact of the ‘claims culture’ driven by Claims Management Companies.

What do we want from the budget?

Published 03 March 2021

At around lunchtime today Rishi Sunak will deliver his budget for the coming year. Arguably the biggest day of year for any Chancellor, this is a budget like never before as we will learn the true impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.