Sub-Prime Cuts

Over a drink with a friend last night, I was reminded about how I once considered myself a financial journalist - having contributed to the financial pages of The Banker, Financial World, The Daily Telegraph and The BBC. One of the last financial pieces I wrote was on how the sub prime market was garnering interest from the high street lenders who were keen to inclusify millions who fell outside their usual criteria. This was a topic that I was keen... [Read More...]

Time for a plan when bills get out of hand

Eric Bond, 48, of South Glamorgan in Wales knows a lot about brown envelopes. As a postman with 25 years’ service, he has delivered scores of them to local households. However, even he was not prepared for the demands landing on his doormat last year when he found himself in the same position as tens of thousands of others in the UK in the midst of a debt spiral. Mr Bond, like many people, was tempted into taking out many personal loans and... [Read More...]

The one-stop shop for white-collar criminals

David Blunkett’s plan to introduce ID cards is supposedly going to reduce the cases of identity fraud, but it could have the opposite effect as criminals would need to steal or counterfeit just one document. The scheme is to include a variety of high-tech countermeasures such as retinal scans and facial recognition, known as biometrics. But there are no plans to allow financial services companies access to these countermeasures owing to public... [Read More...]

Identity Theft

It is easy to assume someone else’s identity (ID), points out Peter Warner, vice-president of security risk management for Mastercard Europe. “When I walked in here this morning and someone gave me my badge, I had to announce who I was but I didn’t have to hand any identity over. I could have said that I was Joe Smith, for example, and I could have assumed that identity during the break and played the part of one of my competitors,”... [Read More...]