Latest news with #SantanderUK
Reuters
05-06-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
UK watchdog mulls scope of compensation scheme for motor finance scandal
LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Britain's Financial Conduct Authority on Thursday set out the considerations for a compensation scheme for customers affected by mis-sold car finance schemes, in what could become the country's next multibillion-pound consumer finance scandal. The FCA said it was awaiting a Supreme Court verdict likely due in July on whether to uphold a previous ruling that several such payments were unlawful, which could require a wide-ranging compensation scheme for millions of customers. The FCA said it was setting out the likely scope and considerations of any consumer redress scheme so it could move quickly to implement one if appropriate. Banks including Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), opens new tab, Close Brothers (CBRO.L), opens new tab and Santander UK (SANS_pa.L), opens new tab have together already set aside more than 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) to cover potential compensation claims. Some analysts say the fallout could be the costliest for banks since they paid almost 40 billion pounds in compensation to customers for mis-selling payment protection insurance. The FCA said it would try to make a redress scheme comprehensive, swift, and easy for consumers to participate in, without resorting to claims management companies that take chunks of consumers' compensation in fees in return for helping with a claim. It also suggested that some estimates of how much customers might be due have been too high. "We've seen a range of redress rates suggested. This includes some highly speculative figures by some CMCs and law firms," the FCA said. Banks have argued a too-punitive scheme could harm a market that customers rely on to buy cars, and damage Britain's appeal as an investment destination for financial services. ($1 = 0.7378 pounds)
Finextra
03-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
ANZ hires Stephen White to run group operations
ANZ today announced the appointment of Stephen White as Group Executive Operations, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos. 0 Stephen has extensive operations experience and joins from Santander UK where he has served as Chief Operating Officer since 2022. Prior to this, Stephen held senior leadership roles at Yorkshire Building Society, AIB Group and National Australia Bank in both the UK and Australia. In this new role, Stephen will be a member of the Group's Executive Committee and accountable for ANZ's group-wide operations function. This includes banking services and its group capability centres as well as ANZ's property and procurement teams. Commenting on the appointment Mr Matos said: 'I'm very pleased to appoint a world-class executive of Stephen's calibre to this critical role that will help drive consistency and predictability across ANZ. This is particularly important as we strengthen our non-financial risk capability. 'Stephen has a proven track record in transforming the operations of large complex businesses and I know he will make a valuable contribution for our customers, shareholders and employees as we unlock the next phase of our growth,' Mr Matos said. Mr White will join ANZ in November 2025, based in Melbourne.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
About £1bn in car loan compensation at risk because data deleted, lawyers warn
Consumers are at risk of losing £1bn of compensation over inflated car loans because high street banks and specialist lenders deleted their data, claims lawyers have warned. Borrowers, banks and the government are anxiously awaiting a ruling from the supreme court that could spark one of the biggest redress schemes since the £50bn payment protection insurance (PPI) saga. But some consumers could miss out because most banks typically purge customer data after six years. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered firms to stop deleting car finance documents when it launched its initial investigation in January 2024. But the files relating to customers with contracts that ended more than six years earlier may have already been lost. That could be a problem if the FCA sets up a compensation scheme where banks are ordered to contact borrowers who may be due a payout. Claims law firm Courmacs Legal says that 465,000 consumer complaints on its books fall into this category, having been paid off before 2018. If all those claimants faced document deletion hurdles, they could lose out on £1.18bn worth of compensation – an average of £2,365 each – according to Courmacs' estimates. 'There is a real risk that millions of people will lose out because the banks which ripped them off will never write to them,' Darren Smith, managing director of Courmacs, said. The Financing and Leasing Association, which represents leading car loan providers including Lloyds, Santander UK and Close Brothers, said: 'We have made clear to the FCA that consistent and fair outcomes cannot be delivered with patchy or absent data.' The car loans scandal has been rumbling on for more than a year, but ballooned in October when a court of appeal judgment vastly expanded an FCA investigation into potentially harmful commission arrangements. It determined that paying a secret commission to car dealers, who had arranged the loans without disclosing the sum and terms of that commission to borrowers, was unlawful. It sparked panic over compensation costs, with lenders including Santander UK, Close Brothers, Barclays and Lloyds potentially on the hook for up to £44bn, according to some analysts. Even chancellor Rachel Reeves attempted to intervene, warning supreme court judges ahead of the April hearing to avoid handing 'windfall' compensation to borrowers. It is unclear whether the court of appeal ruling will be upheld. But consumer champion Martin Lewis said he was still concerned over how data deletion issues would be handled if there is compensation for discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs), which were the subject of the FCA's original investigation. DCAs, which were banned in 2021, allowed car dealerships to earn more commission by setting higher interest rates, providing an incentive to make loans more expensive for consumers. 'I do have concerns about it. I am worried about how it will play out,' Lewis said. However, he urged consumers not to panic. 'We have to hope that the regulator will be on top of firms who have destroyed data, [and] we are only potentially two months away from having some clarity of what's going on.' While banks were urged during the PPI scandal to err on the side of consumers, even when there was no documentation, it is not yet clear how this will play out for car loans. An FCA spokesperson said: 'If we decide to undertake a redress scheme, we will work with industry and other interested parties to ensure that it is as clear and straightforward as possible for customers to complain.' Lloyds Banking Group, the biggest provider of car loans, said: 'We do not recognise these figures shared by Courmacs, and encourage people to contact their car finance provider directly to avoid paying claims management fees.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘Pay here': the QR code ‘quishing' scam targeting drivers
You park the car and look for somewhere to pay. A large QR code on the machine offers to take you directly to the right website where you put in your card details before going on with your day. Only much later are you hit with the double whammy: money gone from your account, and a fine for not paying the genuine parking company. The rise in app- and phone-based parking payment has opened a new frontier for fraudsters: quishing – so called because they are phishing attacks that start with a QR code. The fraudsters stick the codes in places where you would expect to see details of how to pay to park. When you scan one, it takes you to a site where you are asked for your payment details – as you would expect when booking parking. One victim who scanned a code in a station car park told the BBC that the fraudsters tried to take payments then posed as her bank to get more information from her, before running up £13,000 worth of debt in her name. Last year, the UK's Action Fraud received 1,386 reports of scams involving QR codes – a small number, but more than double that in the previous year. In just the first three months of 2025 there were 502, suggesting the problem is growing. Chris Ainsley, the head of fraud risk management at Santander UK, says it is hard to get a full picture of the scale of the fraud. 'Unless drivers receive a parking ticket, a lot of people are unaware that their personal or card details were compromised in this way,' he says. 'When it comes to reporting the eventual scam, often the fact that it originated through quishing goes undocumented.' A QR code where you might expect to see one – on a parking charge machine, on a post in a car park or sometimes on a public EV charger. The code will be on a sticker. The website will ask for your payment details. It will also ask for your car details, but that is likely to be just an attempt to convince you it is a legitimate parking website. You may later get a call from someone pretending to be from your bank who will use the information you have given and tell you that you have been defrauded and need to move your money to a safe account. The safe account is actually in the control of the scammers. Do not do as they ask – your real bank would never request this. Be suspicious of any QR code on a parking payment machine or signpost in a car park. Check that it has not been stuck over a legitimate code. If you have the right parking app already on your phone, use that rather than scanning a code. Use cash or a card to pay at a machine if those are an option. Check the URL of the website before you click on it – it should appear on your phone as you scan the code. Do not click on it if it looks suspicious. When you land on a page through a QR code, check details to make sure it is not a fraudulent version. Giveaways include weird URLs and bad spelling. Check that the URL includes HTTPS, rather than HTTP, before handing over details. Keep an eye on your bank account and report any suspicious payments to your bank. Report the scam to the local council, police and car park owner if it is a private company. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- The Guardian
‘Pay here': the QR code ‘quishing' scam targeting drivers
You park the car and look for somewhere to pay. A large QR code on the machine offers to take you directly to the right website where you put in your card details before going on with your day. Only much later are you hit with the double whammy: money gone from your account, and a fine for not paying the genuine parking company. The rise in app- and phone-based parking payment has opened a new frontier for fraudsters: quishing – so called because they are phishing attacks that start with a QR code. The fraudsters stick the codes in places where you would expect to see details of how to pay to park. When you scan one, it takes you to a site where you are asked for your payment details – as you would expect when booking parking. One victim who scanned a code in a station car park told the BBC that the fraudsters tried to take payments then posed as her bank to get more information from her, before running up £13,000 worth of debt in her name. Last year, the UK's Action Fraud received 1,386 reports of scams involving QR codes – a small number, but more than double that in the previous year. In just the first three months of 2025 there were 502, suggesting the problem is growing. Chris Ainsley, the head of fraud risk management at Santander UK, says it is hard to get a full picture of the scale of the fraud. 'Unless drivers receive a parking ticket, a lot of people are unaware that their personal or card details were compromised in this way,' he says. 'When it comes to reporting the eventual scam, often the fact that it originated through quishing goes undocumented.' A QR code where you might expect to see one – on a parking charge machine, on a post in a car park or sometimes on a public EV charger. The code will be on a sticker. The website will ask for your payment details. It will also ask for your car details, but that is likely to be just an attempt to convince you it is a legitimate parking website. You may later get a call from someone pretending to be from your bank who will use the information you have given and tell you that you have been defrauded and need to move your money to a safe account. The safe account is actually in the control of the scammers. Do not do as they ask – your real bank would never request this. Be suspicious of any QR code on a parking payment machine or signpost in a car park. Check that it has not been stuck over a legitimate code. If you have the right parking app already on your phone, use that rather than scanning a code. Use cash or a card to pay at a machine if those are an option. Check the URL of the website before you click on it – it should appear on your phone as you scan the code. Do not click on it if it looks suspicious. When you land on a page through a QR code, check details to make sure it is not a fraudulent version. Giveaways include weird URLs and bad spelling. Check that the URL includes HTTPS, rather than HTTP, before handing over details. Keep an eye on your bank account and report any suspicious payments to your bank. Report the scam to the local council, police and car park owner if it is a private company.
