Barclaycard says it will have written off over £1.5 billion by the end of 2006 blaming the increase in marketing of IVAs or Individual Voluntary Arrangements as the main reason.
Banks across the UK are unhappy how easily IVAs are marketed and are calling for harder restrictions to be enforced. In the meantime banks across the UK will continue to be hit hard.
In the second half of this year, Barclays alone has written off credit card debt and personal loan debt at a rate of £31 million a week. Despite these figures Barclaycard maintain they have a “responsible” lending process and take a high level of care with their selection process.