Context
The FCA has published a speech given by Alison Walters, FCA Director of Consumer Finance, at the ‘Credit Week: Powering the Future of Finance’ event. The speech recognises that consumer credit plays a vital role in the real economy and in people’s everyday lives, and that the credit market and consumer demands and needs are changing.
Key points to note and next actions
- In addressing the shared challenge, Walters sets out that a more resilient, joined up and trusted credit market will only be achieved through collective action across industry, regulators and partners.
- Walters considers the 50 years since the Consumer Credit Act 1974 came into force, reflecting on how much the finance and credit markets have changed and supporting the Government’s work to reform the consumer credit framework.
- Firms must go beyond avoiding harm to actively delivering better outcomes using data, technology and insight to support consumers in practice, not just in principle.
- The speech discusses the topics of enabling responsible innovation and growth, technology and the consumer of the future, data, open finance and smarter regulation, cost of living pressures and consumer resilience, responding to a market in motion, shaping the way forward together, moving beyond silos, and ‘from transition to transformation’.
- Bringing Buy Now Pay Later into regulation will give consumers stronger protections and support more sustainable borrowing.