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Four major UK banking groups are to share details of their customers' income with the CallCredit agency as part of attempts to tackle the problem of debt-ridden consumers.

HSBC, HBOS (Halifax and Bank of Scotland), Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland (including NatWest) have all agreed to send the agency details of current accounts.

In turn, the agency will conduct an "affordability" check on each customer to monitor the heavily indebted - those people managing to repay only the minimum on, say, seven credit cards - and measure their debts in relation to income. In theory, the process should mean that these people are not in future lent inappropriate sums.

CallCredit will provide the banks with its debt-monitoring reports, but no bank will be allowed to see income information on a rival's customers.

As bad debt write-offs continue to rise, and amid fears of encouraging a consumer credit bubble, most lenders now share "negative" data. This may include how often customers miss payments, as well as some "positive" or behavioural information, such as how much is spent on a card each month.

Barclaycard, Britain's biggest credit card provider, is not taking part in the CallCredit scheme. It will instead conduct its own review of customers' spending behaviour, a spokesman said.

# posted by Medical Information : 4:20 AM