Information on HCSTC data - December 2024

The information you have requested can be found in Table A in the attached file (Annex A).

When reviewing this data, please note that we hold product sales data (PSD) in relation to credit agreements entered into by regulated firms which meet the FCA Handbook definition of high-cost short-term credit[1] (HCSTC). These PSD cover agreements which meet the definitions of HCSTC and have been used to produce this response.

The PSD content used reflects the data as submitted to us by firms. Firms submit PSD on a quarterly basis, providing us with details of the loans they originated in the quarter concerned. The dataset used for this analysis covers the period from 1 July 2016 to 30 September 2024 (33 quarters).

If PSD006 data are not available for a particular firm for a particular period, the data has been supplemented from other sources when possible. The ‘Total Amount Payable’ value is not always available in these additional sources so the figure is not included where this is incomplete.

We estimate that the population of firms included in the dataset represents 90%+ of the HCSTC market (based on the number of new loans originated). Some lenders did not submit data for the whole period covered by this response. Earlier data disclosed under FOIA have been revised following the resubmission of data from some firms.

We had carried out selected cleansing to filter out extreme outlier values that are likely to have been misreported for the consumer credit - high-cost short-term credit lending data[2] report (the report). This resulted in the exclusion of up to around 5% of submitted transactions depending on the data being analysed. We had not included some transactions featured in the PSD dataset where we think the data quality is compromised and publishing would be misleading. For this response we have not carried out the full data cleansing performed for the report. We have, however, excluded clearly erroneous transactions which would substantively skew the aggregate data.

As part of the Cost of living consumer credit data collection[3] certain firms provide information on the applications for new credit agreements. This includes firms who account for more than 95% of the HCSTC agreements reported in table A.

The relevant questions ask about ‘Applications for new credit agreements received and rejected during the reporting period’ and clarifies that ‘The Applications rejected should reflect all applications rejected during the reporting period, not just those applications which were received during the reporting period.’

There is no definition as to what constitutes an application for a new credit agreement, so different approaches are taken by each firm. The aggregate figures provided in Table B should therefore be treated with extreme caution, and do not represent a total number of applications with any specific meaning.

These data are not segmented by the credit risk of the applicants.

The information held can be found in Table B in the attached file (Annex A).