HSBC cuts lending as bad debts soar 36pc
OK, so this just has to be coincidence, right?
“HSBC cuts lending as bad debts soar 36pc”
and… “HSBC is the latest bank to be hit by soaring UK bad debts, underlining concerns that hundreds of thousands of Britons are struggling to cope with a spiralling debt burden.
The bank said bad debt charges in UK retail banking had jumped to £361m from £265m. Losses related to people applying for individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) or going bankrupt made up 33pc of the total, compared with 22pc a year ago.
IVAs are an alternative to bankruptcy. They allow people to reorganise their debts and pay a set amount of money each month in return for creditors freezing interest payments. In May, Government figures showed that IVAs had soared by 142pc compared with the previous year.
HSBC group chairman Stephen Green said the bank had “deliberately reduced its market share” of new UK unsecured lending, though it still has a 10pc share. Last week, Alliance & Leicester reported a 60pc increase in bad debt charges and also scaled back its unsecured lending in the UK. Overall bad debt charges at HSBC rose 18pc to $3.89bn from $3.27bn (£1.75bn).” (Aug 1st 2006, same newspaper as quoted in this post)
You know, there’s real pain behind the “bad debt”… real people with big problems. Instead of piling on the debt, we should be shrinking it.
August 8th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Hi Neil,
As far as I’m concerned that’s their own problem. The banking institutions love to promote lending, borrowing, credit blah blah. It’s what keeps them going. Then they complain that the loans people were granted are not being paid back and could NEVER realistically be paid back in the first place!
If we went back to basics and used CASH to purchase goods and services then we would LEAVE ALONE what we couldn’t afford and in turn the BANKS would again be up in arms because there is no money TO BE MADE!
Where is the balance?
I could go on but I better take time out here.:-)