We've seen a presentation of one of these services.

It was actually really clever and will make life a lot easier for many people. It was also FCA regulated.

It's new though, so it's understandable that people will feel wary.

It’s probably going to be something that we move towards as a firm in time and I do think that eventually it will become normal procedure for reviewing and verifying bank statements, affordability and income.

As you say though TDA, like anything new there can be a bit of uncertainty.

Checking evidence of household expenditure has been a necessary part of administering any statutory debt solution in Scotland for some time now. It seems the FCA is ensuring this is being adopted more fully South of the border too, and in non-statutory solutions.

However, I can't fathom why anybody would be willing to give over their online banking details to a third party. Maybe I am misunderstanding how this works, but surely they can't expect you to give them your password etc?? Not a chance I'd be passing that kind of information over to anyone - even my wife!

Can you clarify further how it works as far as you are aware, Trust Deed Assistant?

OK - a third party provider creates a portal. This portal has been set up to request and recognize the logins for online banking and banking apps for pretty much every bank that operates in the UK.

You use your login details so that the portal can scan your transactions.

You also consent to the portal sharing that information with another party; in this case the trustee.

The trustee receives a report of your transactions from the portal. On the version we saw the report also classifies your transactions into categories similar to those that might be used to set up and income and expenditure report for your trust deed.

As far as I'm aware, the portal doesn't retain the ability to access your banking. Each time this is necessary an individual needs to go in and authorize this (though that are potential future developments that might make it possible to authorize another party to do this periodically without having to login again).

Lots of people find it pretty hard and inconvenient (on a practical level) to provide bank statements when a review is due, so this type of service could make things much easier for them.

It's not the service we've had a demonstration of, but I understand that one of these portal businesses is based in Glasgow and shares a Director with a major insolvency practitioner business.

This is the first time in 3.5years I have been asked for bank statements. As a matter of interest What is the relevance of them if you have already agreed an amount to pay based on your salary and your income and expenditure costs? I don't have an objection to providing paper statements but wouldn't be comfortable giving passwords etc to my on-line account. Who knows where this info would be stored and who would have access to this - I would've thought there would've been a huge data protection and information governance issue with this?

Hi Nel,

There certainly are major data protection considerations involved in accessing people's banking information.

That's why any firm that has been approved to handle this type of work will have to have cleared a very high regulatory hurdle before ever being allowed to do this in the first place.

Hmmm, I think I'm with Nel on this one to be honest and doubt very much that I'd agree to use any portal that stores my personal security information.

Bank statements are certainly relevant though, Nel. When entering a Trust Deed you aren't agreeing an amount to pay for the full 4 years, you are simply agreeing what is affordable at that point. If circumstances change then your payment can change too and it is the trustee's responsibility to do reasonable checks to ensure that the information being provided at each review is accurate.

Hi Kevin,

I'm not sure that it does store those login details Kevin. I think that it probably does not.

As far as I know you're effectively logging into your own online banking via the portal, the portal takes what it needs from the transaction data, then you get signed out.

I don't know enough to guarantee this though.

Anyway, we're not advocating that this is a good thing in particular. I guess it's inevitable over time though that new technology will be harnessed to deliver financial services more efficiently and conveniently.

Also worth saying that plenty of lenders are turning to this technology to assess lending affordability.

People are enabling lenders to access the same information as part of their online borrowing applications.

The lender benefits from much better data with which to assess whether a customer is likely to be able to afford the proposed new repayments. This information is potentially much more useful than a credit report.

It might be something we're all used to and comfortable with in a few years.

I suppose you're right - it's essentially no different to handing over a physical copy of your bank statement anyway in that case.

It also begs new questions.

For example, will people with regular online gambling transactions on their bank statements find it harder to access credit in the future?

Would lenders spot a perceived risk that they wouldn't have known about if relying on a credit report?

Hi,

Thanks for all the responses. I will phone Carrington Dean tomorrow to clarify my position and let you know how I get on. I would hope common sense prevails and I don’t need complete another review after completing my final one only 6 weeks ago. As Nel has mentioned that’s over 3 years and never been asked for statements before.

Hi commando1. I called today and you don't speak to anyone from carrington dean any more it is directly transferred to creditfix . I couldn't even speak to my case handler. I don't mind giving my bank statements what so ever that's not the issue. The issue for me is the uncertainty of what's going to happen going forward since in the last 6 months I've had 3 different trustees and I'm now with another company I've never heard of who is asking for my online banking password to scan my bank statements. It's a bit unsettling! Oh well, needs must eh I just hope nothing else changes. They advised today that my annual review could be carried out on the anniversary of my TD so they would move it forward instead of contacting me in 4 weeks like the letter says. Not sure if that will actually happen tho we will see.

Hi Stace,

Yeah it doesn’t look great with all the changes in trustees. Carrington Dean prior to being taken over were great. I had no problems and if I needed an answer my case handler would provide the answer straight away. It sounds like you’re now put through to a call centre style operation? Did they say anything else when you called?

Yeah carrington dean were great before it felt more personal because you had your own case handler every thing was dealt with quickly and there were no crossed wires because you always dealt with the same person. When I called I got through to someone in the creditfix call centre. The guy was lovely and answered my queries. They advised that everything would remain the same and asked how I'd found my TD so far, can't really complain about my experience today however the guy on the phone did say that creditfix only dealt with IVA's and mostly still do until they recently took on trust deeds. The person spoke with an English accent so I'm not sure if the call is forwarded to a call centre in England even though you still call carrington deans Glasgow number