Partially upheld: irresponsible lending complaint against National Westminster Bank Public Limited Company

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs J complained that NatWest irresponsibly provided four loans between March 2020 and May 2022. The investigator upheld only the complaint about loan one, which NatWest agreed to remedy. Mrs J requested the ombudsman consider only loans three and four. The ombudsman found that NatWest's checks were reasonable and proportionate, Mrs J had declared good income with no adverse credit markings, and there was insufficient evidence of irresponsible lending for loans three and four. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaints about loans three and four but confirmed NatWest must provide redress for loan one by removing all interest, fees and charges and refunding overpayments with interest.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that NatWest's checks were reasonable and proportionate for the loan sizes, and that the information available at the time of lending showed Mrs J had good affordability and was managing her finances well with no adverse credit markings. While Mrs J used her overdraft regularly, this alone does not indicate financial difficulty, and there was insufficient evidence that NatWest should have made more searching enquiries or avoided lending. The ombudsman applied the principle of assessing lending decisions based on information available at the time, not hindsight, and found no evidence of irresponsible lending for loans three and four.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website