News

The Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS) is a vehicle to help organisations to protect vulnerable individuals should they apply for financial services or if their circumstances need highlighting when dealing with organisations with which they already have financial agreements. VRS has been developed having taken into consideration the high level of focus on vulnerability among decision-makers, regulators and media. VRS starts to address the concerns and issues that have been raised.

The Vulnerability Registration Service (‘VRS’) has been developed to help vulnerable consumers protect themselves against the financial, social and very personal hardship suffered as a result of debt and financial problems. The service is deliberately simple to use in that it does not provide details of the individual’s circumstances but allows organisations to treat them in the appropriate way helping the latter to meet their corporate and regulatory responsibilities, including TCF obligations. It is also an independent service which will easily complement other checks that businesses undertake as part of business as usual while maintaining focus on vulnerability, avoiding the risk of missing the need to deal with some individuals in a specialist way.

In summary:

1. The VRS provides an easy to use, secure, single point of reference for vulnerable consumers, lenders and other organisations – cross sector application.

2. The VRS is independent of other databases.

3. The VRS has been established by a team with a track record of success and innovation in their respective fields – consumer credit; business leadership;
compliance, regulatory and consumer affairs; and IT.

4. The VRS provides a valuable tool in meeting regulatory and social responsibilities towards vulnerable consumers.