The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has said it will be receptive to the needs of the UK motor finance and asset finance industries, both of which saw growth in 2012.
Speaking at the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) annual dinner this week, Martin Wheatley, managing director of the Conduct Business Unit at the FSA and chief executive-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), confirmed the Authority was working with, and "listening" to, the FLA.
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Wheatley emphasised the regulator was receptive to the needs of the industry and also acknowledged that the new types of credit markets coming under the aegis of the FCA would require further endeavours towards understanding.
The FCA will be created in spring this year, provided the passing of the Financial Services Bill, and subsume the work of the FSA while taking on many responsibilities of the Office of Fair Trading.
The concern for the FLA has been whether this transfer will see Consumer Credit Act-style regulation applied to retail finance or the use of the Financial Services & Markets Act, which the Association has feared will not be able to account for the high level of intermediation in the market.
Speaking at the dinner, Philip Ross, chairman of the FLA and general manager at Honda Finance Europe, spoke of the "size and diversity" of consumer finance, a market worth £260bn, 40% of which was provided by non-banks and a quarter through retail intermediaries.
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By GlobalDataWheatley, who was voted one of the most powerful 50 people in UK car finance alongside Ross, has previously spoken of the need to be "on the front foot" with regulation of the UK finance industry and the need to penalise "bad practice" in the commission-based selling of financial products.
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