Context
The FCA has published a consultation paper regarding consumer credit reporting. The FCA wants to improve the information it collects from firms, so that it can better understand firms’ consumer credit activities and proactively supervise firms to identify and prevent risk of harm to consumers earlier.
Key points to note and next actions
This consultation is for firms engaged in the following regulated activities:
- credit broking
- debt adjusting
- debt counselling
- providing credit information services
- advising, representing or providing software to support compliance with regulatory reporting for any of the above firms.
The proposed return will ask firms whether they have been actively undertaking activities and using their Permissions and, if not, asking the reason for this to determine whether firms intend to use their Permissions. This will significantly improve the FCAs ability to proactively identify firms which have incorrect or outdated Permissions on the Financial Services Register.
Firms with consumer credit permissions should take this opportunity to review those permissions to determine if any of them are not being used and are not likely to be used in the near to medium future. Firms that wish to respond to this consultation must do so before 31st October 2024.