FCA expands probe into Amigo Holdings

Troubled UK lender Amigo Holdings PLC (LON:AMGO) has provided an update on the ongoing Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigation, first announced on 1st June 2020. The probe was launched to investigate the company’s creditworthiness assessment process and the governance and oversight of the process.

The company has been informed that the FCA has decided to expand the scope of the current investigation so that it can examine whether Amigo appropriately handled complaints after 20th May 2020 and whether they deployed sufficient resources to address complaints in accordance with the Voluntary Requirement announced on 27th May.

The updated investigation will consider whether those complaints will be handled appropriately and whether customers have been treated fairly in accordance with the FCA’s rules.

Problems Mounting
The latest update to the investigation comes after reports from the Financial Ombudsman Service earlier this month that showed Amigo was the UK’s most complained about financial firm in the final quarter of 2020.

According to the Ombudsman, there were over 10,000 complaints about guarantor loans in Q4 of 2020 compared to just 303 in the same period of 2019. Although this covers several companies, Amigo is the largest supplier and had the most complaints, the Ombudsman said.

The company has also been impacted by the pandemic. In its latest results, the lender said payments holidays had been granted to over 63,000 customers and it has seen the number of customers fall by a third to 156,000.

Amigo has said they will continue to cooperate with the FCA in relation to the updated investigation.

At 09:12GMT, Amigo Holdings shares were trading lower by 13% at 11.98p.