1,500 jobs in balance as York credit firm ‘on brink of collapse’

The report in The Sunday Times said that CPP was scrambling to find new backers to avoid a collapse into administration.

Yesterday a spokesman for CPP said: “We are continuing to have constructive discussions with banks and lenders and are looking at all the options.”

A source close to CPP said that speculation that the firm could be on the brink of going into administration was “off the mark”.

CPP was handed a joint record £10.5m fine by the Financial Services Authority last year for mis-selling. The watchdog ruled CPP “failed to treat its customers fairly” between 2005 and March 2011. Following the ruling, CPP lost a number of its biggest customers.

In a statement to investors issued on March 20, CPP said it was “actively pursuing a range of financing options” with a view to putting funding in place, before the maturity of the group’s debt facilities on March 31. The statement confirmed that “to date no financing solution has been achieved”.

The company’s founder Hamish Ogston made about £120m from CPP’s flotation in 2010 and still holds around 57 per cent of the shares. Mr Ogston is one of Yorkshire’s biggest philanthropists and gave £2m to York Minster in 2008. In 2011, he received a CBE for services to business and the community of York.