9 Accepted

The Bank began collecting Scheme loan data from the 24 Scheme lenders in July 2021,...

Conclusion
The Bank began collecting Scheme loan data from the 24 Scheme lenders in July 2021, where lenders provide data to the Bank via a collections system. The Bank said that it holds loan data from lenders across 70 different datapoints, including the name and address of the borrower, term of the loan and size. It explained that it was aggregating this data from all of the Scheme lenders and interrogating it to spot trends and errors.17 Despite the Department and the Bank telling us that they had a “rich” and “comprehensive” loan dataset, the NAO found that lender data can be unreliable as the system depends on lenders submitting accurate and timely data, and each lender reports it on a different basis.18 Some lenders might choose not to report suspected fraud, which makes comparisons subjective; while some lenders do not share their underlying data.19 The Bank wrote to us and told us that it was working with lenders to understand what was driving these differences, such as different business models, or that some lenders might not have had a pre-existing relationship with Scheme borrowers.20 Reliance on lenders for recoveries
Government Response Summary
The government details its extensive existing work with the Bank of England and other bodies, explaining how they already collect, analyze, and enrich data to assess fraud risk, identify suspected fraudulent actors across schemes, and manage lender performance, in collaboration with HMRC.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
2.4 The department, working with other government and non-governmental bodies, collects an extensive amount of data resources for fraud risk assessment and identification analysis. The Bank receives significant volumes of data on lender performance and each borrower, which informs the fraud analytics work done on behalf of the department by the Government Counter Fraud Function. Outputs include, for example: analysis to identify high-fraud risk facilities for lenders to investigate further; data enrichment such as data matching with Companies House; inter and intra scheme analysis to identify suspected fraudulent actors across BBLS and other schemes; and network analysis which has resulted in details of high-risk networks of associated individuals or companies being passed onto law enforcement agencies. Data sharing with lenders also helps them with their internal fraud risk profiling and identification. Data also aids the Bank to enhance their lender management programme. The department is also collaboratively working with HMRC to improve its risking analysis and identify cross schemes fraud. 2.6 The department has worked with the Bank to develop analytical and forward-looking expected credit loss models that are compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS 9). These models provide a sophisticated approach to forecasting expected credit losses across the COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes, utilising granular data from lenders and other sources.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 4.3 yrs
Report published 27 Apr 2022