BBA in warning over “irresponsible” lenders

Banks are obliged to lend responsibly in line with a regulatory code, but often other credit providers do not behave with the same scruples and consumers can find themselves paying the price, the BBA suggests.

And concerns about the debt management problems financially stretched individual could face as a result have prompted the association to write to the shadow treasury minister Mark Hoban about the situation.

“Only around 63 per cent of unsecured borrowing now comes from the banks,” says BBA chief executive Angela Knight.

“There are certainly responsible lenders among the rest, but how is a consumer to know who they are or what their lending rules are?”

Figures from the Liberal Democrats recently suggested that the average UK household now spends more of its total income in an effort to clear debt than at any point over the last decade.