Giving evidence yesterday to the Treasury Select Committee on the economic impact of Coronavirus, Stephen Haddrill, Director General of the Finance & Leasing Association, highlighted the need for non-bank lenders to have access to the Term Funding Scheme, and for critical changes to be made to the Consumer Credit Act (CCA) to allow swift help for consumers in financial difficulty.

 Speaking after his evidence session, Stephen Haddrill said:

“By early April, FLA members had received an estimated 526,000 Covid-related requests for forbearance, and had helped almost 60% by that date with more in the pipeline. Lenders are rightly supporting their customers – in many cases, the lenders and borrowers know each other well.    

“The non-bank lending sector relies heavily on capital markets and bank funding – two sources of finance which are currently closed. The result is that these lenders will not be able to provide new lending as well as forbearance – and when you consider that these finance companies provided £46 billion of funding during 2019 to SMEs for business investment and point of sale finance for consumers, that would be a huge loss to the economy right at the point when funding will be needed to help the UK recovery.

“To remedy this, we want to see the Term Funding Scheme opened to non-bank lenders as a matter of urgency, and eligibility criteria streamlined to fast-track firms which are FCA regulated or already part of a British Business Bank scheme.

“At a time when customers need quick and simple solutions to help them manage disruptions to their incomes, the inadequacies of the CCA have been thrown into sharp relief. 

“The CCA includes formal and complex modifying agreement provisions which requires a new agreement to be sent to the customer, signed and then returned before they are activated. Imagine how labour-intensive that process is when multiplied by the number of customers seeking forbearance. 

“In the next couple of months, a further problem will manifest itself – the Notice of Sum in Arrears – an abruptly worded letter which the lender is required to send, even though a new payment arrangement has already been agreed. It will no doubt trigger another spike in calls as customers question why this has been sent. This is inexcusable when customers are already worried. 

“While the FCA is obviously aware of the problem, we have had little clarity on what happens at the end of this period of disruption to help consumers transition back to a normal payment schedule and firms back to normal business. A clear exit strategy is needed.”

Notes to Editors 

1. We have proposed that the Term Funding Scheme for SMEs be opened to non-banks or a new Term Funding Scheme is established administered by the British Business Bank.
2. In addition, the FLA together with UK Finance, Innovate Finance, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders’ Association and the Association of Alternative Business Finance, have proposed to the Government and the Bank of England:

• A term-funding scheme open to non-bank specialist lenders, (NBSLs) funded by the purchase of investment-grade bonds by the Bank of England and supported by Bank Guarantees to support wholesale funders.
• A “Forbearance Liquidity Funding Scheme” which proposes that the UK Government provides eligible NBSLs with the liquidity required to fund loans on which forbearance has been provided, that would currently fall outside of existing funding lines.

 3. In 2019, FLA members provided £140.3 billion of new finance to UK businesses and households. £104.7 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. £35.7 billion of finance was provided to businesses and the public sector. FLA members financed more than a third of UK investment in machinery, equipment and purchased software in the UK in 2019

For media enquiries, please contact the FLA press office on 020 7420 9656.