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September consumer lending up, but not on the High Street
Lending to consumers by members of the Finance and Leasing Association grew in September, according to the Association’s latest market statistics.
More than £4.9 billion was lent to consumers by FLA members during September 2011, higher than in the same month the previous year. Growth was seen in car finance, second-charge mortgages and personal loans, but High Street credit continued to shrink, with store card lending down by 15% and store instalment credit by 11% compared with September 2010.
Fiona Hoyle, FLA Head of Consumer Finance, commented:
“September’s consumer credit borrowing shows a slight improvement on last year, but not on the High Street. We hope that High Street sales will be helped by last week’s agreement with the Government on store cards, which provides new protections for customers while preserving the advantages of this way of making High Street purchases.”
Table 1: New consumer credit lending Sep 2011
|
| Sep 11 | % change on prev. year | Q3 2011 | % change on prev. year | 12 months to Sep 2011 | % change on prev. year |
| Total FLA consumer finance (£m) | 4,936 | +3 | 13,305 | +1 | 51,776 | -1 |
| Store cards (£m) | 136 | -15 | 420 | -10 | 1,807 | -20 |
| Credit cards & personal loans (£m) | 2,730 | +1 | 8,259 | +1 | 32,775 | -1 |
| Store instalment credit (£m) | 190 | -11 | 543 | -15 | 2,493 | -9 |
| Second mortgages (£m) | 29 | +7 | 81 | +4 | 285 | -9 |
| Car finance (£m) | 1,730 | +8 | 3,668 | +7 | 13,302 | +2 |
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Note to editors:
In 2010 FLA members provided £72.0 billion of new finance to UK businesses and households. £51.7 billion of this was in the form of consumer credit, a third of all unsecured lending in the UK. And £19.0 billion of it supported the purchase of new and used cars, including more than half of private new car registrations in 2010.
For further media information, please contact:
Russell Hamblin-Boone, FLA
T: 020 7420 9656 E: russell.hamblin-boone@fla.org.uk M: 07810 374110
Helen Saxon, FLA
T: 020 7420 9664 E: helen.saxon@fla.org.uk M: 07918 766 993
.