At the end of section 9, Financial Difficulties, there are eleven paragraphs headed ‘Debt and mental health’.
Inclusion of this is a huge departure from the previous section 14 of the Banking Code [most of which is now wrapped up in the FSA BCOBS]. It is about time this recognition of the vulnerable started, since the Treasury Select Committee was urging it in 2005 and the Money Advice Trust [a charity supported by the industry] in 2007, the two previous reviews of the code.
As the Lending Code includes guidance on treatment of micro enterprises this applies to these as well as personal customers. Fortunately the right of customers to represent themselves is not challenged here. As with debtors we have indeed moved a long way in understanding since the nineteenth century.
While this in no way puts the MAT or Treasury advice as part of the code, there is an instruction to British Banking Association members to take note of the guidelines published by MAT on behalf of the Money Advice Liaison Group, which is a forum with representatives from all parts of the finance industry, charities and government sections concerned.
While the more negative admission that the Lending Standards Board [new name for the Banking Code Standards Board] will neither monitor nor enforce them, the expectation of observance is clear and of value.
This is excellent news for vulnerable debtors, the mental health charities, the advisors and plain common sense.
Still a-ways to go for the full laying out of how to treat all vulnerable customers, but a welcome and cheering start. Such understanding bodes well for all debtors and all borrowers; perhaps paradoxically for all creditors as well.
Joseph Harris, Debt Control Man
Author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms
http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk