The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has spoken of its hopes and concerns over the deadline set by the Government for transfer of regulatory powers to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The news last week of actions by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to curtail the worst behaviours of the payday loans market, included further detail of the remit of the FCA, which will subsume powers from both the OFT and Financial Services Authority (FSA) in April 2014, as laid out by Kirstin Green, deputy director, consumer and competition policy, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Previously, the FLA has expressed concern that the consumer credit market would prove too intermediated to be regulated appropriately by a blanket application of the Financial Services & Markets Act by the FCA when it comes into being.

Since then, speaking at the FLA Annual Dinner at the end of February, Martin Wheatley, managing director of the Conduct Business Unit at the FSA and chief executive-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said the Authority was working with, and "listening" to, the FLA.

Commenting on the back of the latest FLA figures for motor finance, Stephen Sklaroff, director general of the Association, said: "It is gratifying to see that the Government has accepted the need for a tailored regulatory regime for consumer credit, proportionate to the many different kinds of lending including motor finance."

However, Sklaroff repeated his concerns aired at the FLA Motor Finance Convention in November 2012, saying the timeframe for change of regulator appeared "very tight, given the huge amount of work still to be done".

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