It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
In 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) mandated firms to implement the new Consumer Duty, to put their customers’ needs first, within 12 months. As companies align their products with regulatory standards in the new year, Jake Ranson, CEO of Paylink, reflects on implications for the 2024 lending market.
2023 saw an overhaul in the way the regulator holds participants, in UK financial services, to account. The industry has pivoted to put the customer front and centre.
Fair4all Finance estimates that there are 17.5million UK people in financially vulnerable circumstances and excluded from credit. This figure is on the rise, exacerbated by the continuing cost of living crisis, but the flow of credit matters greatly.
People will move in and out of this financially vulnerable position throughout their lives, due to unforeseen circumstances such as redundancy, during which access to credit will help to avoid illegal money lending.
Our product, ReFi™, is a True Debt Consolidation product created to address challenges in the lending industry by automating the settling of legacy debt with a customer’s new loan. The product has already saved customers over £10m in interest payments allowing credit to flow responsibly to those who need it.
Alongside beneficial products like ReFi™, 2024 will see an increase in exclusively online relationships with money. Hyper-personalisation of user-experiences will mean consumers are offered products genuinely suited to their needs – a positive change for both the consumer and the industry, that upholds the FCA’s new Consumer Duty.
