Banks ‘hinder IVA uptake’

The attitudes of banking groups in the UK are leading to a “slight drop-off” in the number of people entering an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) in recent months, one expert has suggested.

Chris Tapp from the Credit Action charity insists that British banks are limiting the number of people who are able to enter an IVA by introducing stricter criteria.

“A couple of years ago creditors were agreeing to far more IVAs than they now are, they’re now being a bit stricter in terms of the cases that they’ll agree to,” Mr Tapp explained.

“There are still a very large number of IVAs going through and we are still seeing an increase in the number of people going bankrupt,” he added.

Figures from the Insolvency Service show that the number of individual insolvencies in England and Wales fell from the first to the second quarter of this year, but were 4.2 per cent higher during the second three months of this year compared to the same period in 2006.