ABSTRACT
[5.01] The background. In the twentieth century, there was an explosive growth in the use made of instalment credit both by business (asset finance) and for private consumption. On the private consumption side, this seems to have been linked to the development of the affluent society and mass production of consumer durables. In 1971, the then shape of the credit market was surveyed by the Crowther Report (see para 5.03 ): in terms of loans outstanding, over 40% was vendor credit (see para 2.19 ) provided by retailers; whereas some 50% was lender credit (see para 2.20 ) supplied by banks and finance houses. 1 In the 1980s, lender credit increased to over 80% of the market: this was largely achieved by the expansion in the use of threeparty payment cards in retail outlets at the expense of traditional forms of vendor credit, the latter falling below 5% of amounts outstanding. 2
