All articles by MF Editorial
MF Editorial
OFT’s Financial Services Plan published
The plan sets out how the OFT will sharpen its focus over the coming year with two particular areas coming under the spotlight: The short-term prioritisation of promoting fairness and responsibility between the credit industry and its customers, and the longer-term goal of making sure that choice and competition are strongly emphasised, so that public decisions made to deal with the current economic crisis do not harm competition in the long term to the detriment of consumers.
Auction house BCA’s latest research on residual values has found that they have recovered significant ground.
Auction house BCAs latest research on residual values has found that they have recovered significant ground. BCAs quarterly Price Index found that average prices declined sharply after Q1 08, but recovered as sharply as they had fallen in the first half of 2009, gaining back all the ground lost over the past year (see chart). The Price Index takes the average in Q1 05 – £4,780 – as its baseline, with a value of 100 points
CC publishes draft PPI order
FREE)The Competition Commissions proposals for introducing more competition into the selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) have been published in draft form, with parties invited to comment before 7 August. The measures follow on from the CCs final report into PPI, published in January, which concluded that when PPI is sold alongside a loan, for example with car finance, businesses face little or no competition.
Scrappage link-up for lender
FREE) Advantage Finance has signed an exclusive agreement with Stoneacre Motor Group to provide finance for customers wishing to take up the discounts available via the governments £2,000 scrappage scheme Stoneacre has 20 new and used branches throughout the UK, with the new car outlets representing 10 car manufacturers including Citron, Ford and Peugeot. Guy Thompson, managing director of Advantage, said: Advantage will support the scheme by providing finance, to customers purchasing from Stoneacre, using the old car to be scrapped as a deposit on loans up to a maximum value of £6,000.
Proposed changes to lessee accounting regime: the industry responds
The International Accounting Standards Boards (IASB) project to overhaul the standards governing lessee accounting has been slowly gathering place for some time Its discussion paper (DP), Leases: Preliminary Views, sparked a huge volume of discussion, not least at a roundtable hosted by VRL, publishers of Motor Finance, held in London in early July The IASB states it wishes to move to a standard which more accurately reflects that operating leases such as contract hire give rise to assets and liabilities that should be recognised in the financial statements of lessees, rather than being kept off balance sheet, as is the practice at present.
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Q&A: Alan Lunt
Q: Could the added complexity of accounting for options such as usagemileage under the proposed changes cause fleet managers to conclude that leasing is too complicated, precipitating a move back into cash-for-car or employee car ownership schemes? A: While the commercial elements of leasing will not change, and therefore ultimate cost of leasing the asset will stay the same, the additional accounting administration by a lessee may well prove a disincentive and force them to look at other forms of finance.
Eye in the sky for fleets
Forward-thinking organisations are discovering that in todays 247 hi-tech world, satellite technology has a crucial role to play in cutting costs, boosting legislative compliance and improving business efficiency and ultimately productivity.
Motor finance industry needs more help, says FLA
The Business and Enterprise Select Committees report on government help for the motor sector has criticised the fact that the Automotive Assistance Programme (AAP) has yet to hand over a penny to motor firms.
Finance ‘gateway’ to boost penetration rates launched
(FREE) Vehicle data check company HPI has launched a web-based tool for dealers, which aims to boost their rates of finance penetration HPI Finance Gateway is an online system which allows dealers to find new and used car finance for their customers from a panel of funders – from prime to sub-prime The finance houses Fortis, Moneyway, Santander and Southern Finance are signed up the system, with HPI in talks with other providers including Black Horse, British Credit Trust, Carlyle Finance and Duncton
Fleets urged to speak out on lease accounting proposals
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is proposing to change dramatically the rules governing lessee accounting – and it wants comments from fleet providers on its outlined framework before July 17. Under the IASBs outlined new regime for lessees, set out in a recently published discussion paper, Leases: Preliminary Views, it is envisaged that end-users of leasing services will have to account for lease rentals on balance sheets as a liability This will involve moving away from the current system whereby finance leases are shown on balance sheets, but operating leases – including contract hire – are not, as ownership of the asset is deemed to stay with the lessor (see Motor Finance March 09)