IVA growth ‘leading to better lending’

Thanks to IVA expansion, Becky Wilks, spokeswoman for National Debtline, said that banks are sharing information as they realise the scale of lending.

“One move that has happened recently is that creditors have now said that they will exchange more information,” Ms Wilks said.

“Because creditors have now said that they will exchange this information, so they can see now if somebody does have 15 other credit cards and then obviously make a decision whether or not they do want to lend to them or whether it would be a bad lending decision.”

Earlier this year, government figures showed a rise in the amount of people seeking out IVAs as a means of debt management.

As opposed to bankruptcy, an IVA can allow a person to repay debt without many of the major traumas.

“This is an overdue development,” commented David Mond, CEO of IVA firm ClearDebt. “If banks and credit card companies had shared information at the height of the credit boom then fewer people would now be seeking an IVA.”