Not upheld: irresponsible lending complaint against Lendable Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs B complained that Lendable lent to her irresponsibly when she borrowed £1,000 in October 2025 to be repaid over 12 months. Although Mrs B made the first three repayments, she subsequently became unable to repay. The ombudsman found that Lendable had conducted a reasonable and proportionate affordability assessment by verifying Mrs B's income, checking her expenditure against statistical data, and reviewing her credit file. Despite one default in early 2024, Mrs B's other credit accounts showed good payment history and she was not overly indebted. The ombudsman concluded that the checks suggested Mrs B would have sufficient disposable income to sustainably afford the loan and therefore did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the regulatory requirement that lenders must carry out a reasonable and proportionate affordability assessment that is borrower-focused and considers whether repayments would cause undue difficulty or adverse consequences. The ombudsman found that given the relatively small loan amount, short repayment period, verified income, checked expenditure, and generally good credit history (aside from one default), the checks Lendable conducted were proportionate. The ombudsman concluded that the information from Lendable's checks suggested Mrs B would have sufficient disposable income to sustainably afford the loan repayments, and therefore Lendable was not wrong to agree to lend.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website