Lenders provided almost five million payment deferrals during Covid
Lenders have provided a total of 4.76 million payment deferrals during the pandemic, UK Finance data has shown.
This is made up of 2.75 million mortgage payment holidays for mortgages, 1.18 million credit card payment deferrals and 828,000 deferrals for personal loan payments over the past 12 months.
There were 1.8 million mortgage deferrals in place at the peak in June 2020 and as at 26 February 2021, there were 104,000 mortgage payment deferrals still in place.
As of 5 March 2021, approximately 100,000 credit card payment deferrals and 82,000 personal loan payment holidays were still in place.
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“Businesses and individuals across the country have shown great resilience over the past year as we all deal with this unprecedented situation,” said David Postings, chief executive of UK Finance.
“Helping get the UK through these tough times has been at the heart of our work over the past year, and will continue. Working together with our members, the government, regulators and others, I am proud of what the banking and finance industry has delivered.
“As we look to the months ahead, we will continue to provide support for customers as we move on from the effects of the pandemic.”
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The contactless limit was increased to £45 on 1 April 2020 to make it easier for people to pay for more goods using contactless payment, helping to keep people safe and reduce the spread of the virus.
Contactless payments accounted for 37 per cent of all credit card and 59 per cent of all debit card transactions during the November 2020 lockdown.
Nearly 17 million vulnerable customers were proactively contacted by their bank and offered additional support.
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As of February, the total amount of money delivered to businesses via government-backed loans has reached £73bn.
Staff working in bank, building society, and post office branches stopped £45.3m of fraud through the Banking Protocol in 2020, where staff alert the police if they suspect a customer is at risk of fraud whilst the customer is in branch or on the phone.
