BBA forces banks to treat customers fairly – comment from Callcredit

The British Bankers Association (BBA) has announced today that section 2 of its new Banking Code now includes rules requiring banks to treat customers fairly and to better understand a consumers overall debt exposure, and have a timely view on how this is evolving.

Graham Lund, Deputy Managing Director at Callcredit, comments:

“Callcredit broadly welcomes these changes. Making lending more responsible means making better, and quicker, use of customer data. Traditionally, lenders run a credit check on a customer the day they accept their application – and then will often run monthly checks thereafter.”

“As the first CRA to provide daily triggers, we provide lenders with a daily feed of information from many sources regarding the customer so that if, for example, they fall behind with one payment to another creditor, the lender is immediately notified and can make appropriate moves. A number of the key clearers and lenders are already starting to make use of this solution, and we are pleased to see that the need to use such timely data is being recognised by lenders, trade bodies and regulators.”

He added: “CallMonitor offers daily profile updates of a lender’s existing customer base and helps a number of them to comply with the new Banking Code and address the mounting concern of a deepening financial crisis.”

Callcredit encourages lenders to keep a constant check on their customers’ creditworthiness. Their CallMonitor service was the first in the UK to provide banks with daily updates to their customers’ profiles using a combination of SHARE, CCJ, and bankruptcy data. It has helped financial institutions identify key changes in their customers’ financial circumstances, enabling users to spot when consumers may be at risk of over-indebtedness and identify any early signs of fraudulent activity. Just over a year since its launch, a number of major banks and building societies, including HBOS, are now using Callcredit’s CallMonitor. The tool tracks well over 30 million consumers daily.

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Julia Burchell

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