Britain’s banks turn sleuths to crack $100 billion question

LONDON: Does a canceled gym membership spell financial disaster?

That is the type of question British banks are asking as they try to work out whether borrowers owing some £75 billion ($96 billion) in home loans will be good for it when a payment holiday, introduced when the coronavirus crisis first hit, ends.

Lenders are scouring current account transactions, credit card spending and trends in Internet searches for clues about customer finances as part of a wider effort to understand the damage to their portfolios from the pandemic.