Not upheld: Irresponsible lending complaint against Evergreen Finance London Limited trading as MoneyBoat.co.uk

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs C complained that MoneyBoat lent her £500 without conducting sufficient affordability checks. MoneyBoat assessed her income at £2,750 per month and living costs at £2,428 per month (after increasing her declared £1,680 figure), concluding she had sufficient disposable income. The firm conducted a credit search showing no active defaults or CCJs, though some older missed payments existed. Mrs C argued the checks were inadequate and that bank statements would have revealed all her income was committed to debt servicing. The ombudsman found MoneyBoat's checks were proportionate to the circumstances, including verification of income and use of statistical data to estimate living costs, and that requesting bank statements would have been disproportionate. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that MoneyBoat was required to assess whether Mrs C could sustainably repay the loan, not merely whether she had sufficient money. However, given the early stage of the lending relationship and the single loan nature of the complaint, less thorough checks were proportionate. MoneyBoat's checks were reasonable: it verified Mrs C's declared income through a credit reference agency tool, increased her declared living costs by £748 using statistical data and credit search results, and found sufficient disposable income remained. The credit search revealed no concerning active defaults or CCJs, and older missed payments were not sufficiently recent to warrant further investigation. The ombudsman concluded that requesting bank statements would have been disproportionate given the circumstances and the results of the checks already conducted.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website