Consumer finance new business grows by 1% in 2019

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business grew in December 2019 by 12% compared with the same month in 2018, driven by the timing of Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail events.  In 2019 as a whole, this market reported new business growth of 1%.

Credit card and personal loan new business together grew in December 2019 by 11% compared with the same month in 2018, but held steady in 2019 overall. 

Retail store and online credit new business increased in December by 13% compared with the same month in the previous year, and by 3% in 2019 as a whole.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said

“The strong growth in consumer finance new business provided by FLA members in December was driven by the timing of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail events.

“The modest growth reported for the 2019 as a whole was in line with expectations.  We expect single-digit new business growth in 2020 if there is a pick-up in consumer confidence.”

Table 1: New consumer credit lending

Note to editors:

1. In 2019, Black Friday fell on 29 November, almost a week later than in 2018, so the majority of the retail events including Cyber Monday fell in December last year

2. FLA members in the consumer finance sector include banks, credit card providers, store card providers, second-charge mortgage lenders, motor finance providers, personal loan and instalment credit providers.
3. In 2019, FLA members provided £140 billion of new finance to UK businesses and households. £105 billion of this was in the form of consumer credit representing over a third of total new consumer credit written in the UK in 2019.
4. Consumer motor finance reported in these figures refers to finance obtained through the point of sale.
5. For media enquiries, please contact the FLA press office on 020 7420 9656.