The stock of outstanding consumer credit is at an all-time high. But relative to gross household incomes the ratio is falling. In this blog we take a deep dive into the data, highlighting why aggregate measures are misleading, and reporting on the shocking severity of the consumer credit debt burden being experienced by low income households.

A new report from Fair4All Finance argues there has been a severe decline in the availability of credit for lower income households, and that we should consider "regulatory adjustments" to address it. In our response, we argue that there is little evidence of a 'credit vacuum' and that now is not the time to embolden high-cost lenders who are trying to roll back the regulatory clock.

Employer Salary Advance Schemes (ESAS) and loans provided with the security of 'first call' on wages are expanding. Whilst collecting repayments directly from pay helps reduce the cost of borrowing, there are concerns that the products could harm some customers. In this blog we urge providers to ensure advances and loans are affordable and for mechanisms to be put in place so financially distressed customers can easily request a suspension of payments. We also call for further research to be conducted into the impacts of the products.

In July, we reflected on new evidence looking at people’s experience of using illegal lenders. Today, we are publishing our secondary analysis of the FCA's Financial Lives Survey, 2020 highlighting how demographic factors and financial pressures combine to increase the risk of borrowing from loan sharks. We find that having borrowed from legal high-cost lenders in the past 12 months greatly increases this risk and call for direct measures to counter cost-of-living pressures as the means to counter it.

Following reports of a possible Government U-turn concerning the regulation of Buy Now Pay Later, we provide further details of the link to credit card debt and argue that should be subject to the same rules.

Estimates of illegal moneylending use vary widely, from just 200,000 to over 1 million. But whatever the true scale of the problem, the main drivers are likely to be poverty and over-indebtedness rather than a "credit vacuum". Carl Packman reflects on the latest evidence.

In November 2022, the FCA identified several serious failings with the current system of credit information reporting. These included poor governance arrangements, systemic inhibitors to innovation, and a lack of comprehensive and accurate reporting. In this blog, we provide our reflections on the FCA's proposed remedies and argue that fundamental changes are needed to the types of information being collected and reported.