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03 January 2006
Banks and credit card firms could be punished for sending consumers further into debt under proposals from the Banking Code Standards Board (BCSB).
The Evening Standard reports that the board will meet on January 11'th to discuss proposals which could make financial institutions seriously reconsider the way in which they discern whether a customer, or potential customer, is worthy of credit.
Included in the proposals is the possibility that card providers may be banned from issuing credit cards to customers who have taken out loans to consolidate debts elsewhere.
This will mark the culmination of the BCSB's inquiry into the huge debt problems affecting the British public, which studied the attitudes of 12 banks and card providers towards creditworthiness.
The watchdog is also likely to provide new guidelines on the provision of loans based on joint household incomes - something of a grey area in the past, sometimes down to lack of communication with both spouses.
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