Registry Trust, the not-for-profit organisation which maintains the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, is calling on stakeholders from across the credit and debt landscape to support its project to create a Register of Partial Settlements.
Registry Trust’s monetary judgments data is used for public good in millions of credit and lending decisions every year and its aim is to continuously improve the quality, accuracy, timeliness and completeness of the information it holds and shares.
Currently, Registry Trust only receives information about fully settled and satisfied county court judgment (CCJ) debts, but not partial settlements. This means that there may be many entries on the Register showing to creditors and others as outstanding when in fact they have been partially settled by mutual agreement between the claimant and the defendant. In the eyes of both parties, the matter is closed, but when it comes to credit information, it appears unresolved. This unnecessarily impacts creditworthiness and isn’t in the interests of customer fairness.
To address this, Registry Trust is developing a Register of Partial Settlements where this information can be stored and shared with the credit reference agencies, law firms, debt management companies, lenders, insurance companies, enforcement and collections agencies, government bodies, charities, regulators, think tanks, members of the public, and others that use its data in decision-making. This will transform CCJs from a binary factor in credit decisions to an enriched source of data which includes verified payments and partial settlements.
Registry Trust’s Operations Director, Chris Dick, says:
“The benefits of the Register of Partial Settlements include greater transparency of the whole ‘debt journey’, recognition of willingness to pay in credit and lending decisions, improving financial literacy and encouraging action to resolve debts, and fairer outcomes for all, especially the most financially vulnerable.
“We want to provide those who use our data with the most complete picture possible so that they can make quality decisions based on quality data. This will improve access to affordable credit at a time when it is needed most. But we can’t do it alone. We need the support and backing of stakeholder organisations to make it happen.”
Organisations interested in publicly demonstrating their commitment to fair lending practices and finding out more about Registry Trust’s Partial Settlements project should visit https://registrytrust-psp.co.uk/.
Also read Chris Dick’s blog on improving credit decision-making with CCJ debt partial settlements data.