The UK Government has published responses to its consultation held over the transferring of consumer credit regulation from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as of 1 April 2014.

The document of responses, published by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and HM Treasury, is available here.

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The consultation document outlines the regulatory model and approach to come under the FCA, which has now replaced the Financial Services Authority (FSA), as well as the secondary legislation the Government hopes to pass this year to buttress the changeover.

Next steps

It also includes next steps in the transfer of regulation: The legislative framework for the transfer will be made before the summer, Parliamentary scheduling permitting, and firms will be able to register for interim permissions to perpetuate their consumer credit licences from 2 September 2013.

The FCA will also enact a consultation over its rulebook for consumer credit in the autumn.

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The collection of more than 100 responses, from both businesses and consumer groups, was run from 6 March to 1 May 2013 and was part of the "extensive consultation" regarding the changeover explained by Kirstin Green, deputy director, consumer and competition policy, at BIS.

Timetable concern

In an introduction to the publication of responses, the Government said: "the FCA will be better equipped to tackle the consumer detriment and malpractice that has taken place under the current regime with stronger powers and resources to protect consumers and promote effective competition in the consumer credit market".

However, industry body the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has warned the expected transfer of regulation to the FCA by April 2014 will present complications for many companies, providing only a narrow window of time to ensure compliance.

At the end of the consultation period in May, the FSA said it remained ‘confident’ in its timetable for taking on regulation of more than 50,000 companies.

Although one of the ‘key themes’ acknowledged by the publication is the challenging pace of change, the "Government holds firm to the principle that a protracted interim period could be detrimental for consumers and unhelpful for firms, and that certain consumer protections should be in place from ‘day one’," according to the response paper.

Further analysis of the consultation response will be published in the July issue of Motor Finance magazine.