Credit card firms told to share info

13 April 2012

CREDIT card lenders have been told to share more information about customers to prevent a debt crisis if the consumer boom turns to bust.

In a letter today to the biggest card issuers, John McFall, chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, says that limits on data sharing made responsible lending difficult and stifled competition.

'The importance of adequate credit checking and data sharing has been demonstrated in recent months by a number of tragic cases,' McFall writes, referring to a case in which a man facing huge credit card debts killed himself. 'It should be possible for the risk of such situations to be eliminated,' McFall says in the letter to Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and US card firm MBNA's European business.

McFall has asked the lenders to report to the committee about how they share information and says he will ask the Information Commissioner to look at removing legal barriers to information sharing.

Regulators are concerned at record borrowing and rising consumer bankruptcies, which reached an 11-year high in the fourth quarter of last year.

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