Included in this weeks edition of InCredit: FCA announces delay to launch of credit information market study; Bank of England workshop on big data and machine learning; FSI publishes comparative analysis on stress-testing banks and more...

UK

FCA announces delay to launch of credit information market study

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that it is delaying the launch of its credit information market study (CIMS) until June 2019.

FCA, 27 November 2018

PayPal / iZettle merger raises competition concerns

The CMA has found that PayPal’s takeover of Swedish start-up iZettle could lead to higher prices or reduce the range of services for customers.

CMA, 26 November 2018

Bank of England workshop on big data and machine learning

The Bank of England (BoE), the Data Analytics for Finance and Macro Research Centre at King's College London and the Federal Reserve Board are holding a two-day workshop on 26 and 27 November 2018 to discuss recent advances in modelling the economy using big data and novel modelling approaches.

BoE, 26 November 2018

Treasury Committee launches inquiry into IT failures at banks

The House of Commons Treasury Committee has launched an inquiry into IT failures in the financial services sector. The inquiry will focus on the common causes of operational incidents in the sector, the ways in which consumers lose out as a result of such incidents, and whether regulators have the relevant skills to adequately hold people to account.

UK Parliament, 23 November 2018

FCA consults on price cap in the Rent-to-Own sector

The FCA has published Consultation Paper (CP18/35) - Rent-to-own and alternatives to high-cost credit –feedback on CP18/12 and consultation on a price cap. FCA is consulting on introducing a price cap from 1 April 2019 to address harm to vulnerable consumers from high prices in the RTO sector. The FCA aims to finalise these rules at the beginning of March 2019 and for them to come into force on 1 April 2019. As part of this work, the FCA is also making final rules to introduce a ban on concluding the sale of extended warranties at the point of sale of the RTO agreement. The final rules which are set out in this paper will come into force on 22 February 2019.

FCA, 22 November 2018

FCA reports on current account prompts

The FCA has published a summary of its research into prompts provided by firms to their current account customers. In 2017-18 the FCA undertook research into how to develop these prompts so that they are most effective. This summary brings together the key findings from the FCA's research which is aimed to help firms to design effective prompts that work in practice.

FCA, 20 November 2018

Worldwide

ECB regulation on threshold for assessing the materiality of credit obligations past due published in OJ

Regulation (EU) 2018/1845 of the European Central Bank (ECB) of 21 November 2018 on the exercise of the discretion under Article 178(2)(d) of the Capital Requirements Regulation (EU) 575/2013(CRR) in relation to the threshold for assessing the materiality of credit obligations past due has been published in the Official Journal of the EU. With this Regulation, the ECB exercises the discretion conferred on competent authorities under Article 178(2)(d) of the CRR in relation to the threshold for assessing the materiality of credit obligations past due. This Regulation applies exclusively with regard to credit institutions classified as significant in accordance with Article 6(4) of Regulation (EU) 1024/2013 and Part IV and Article 147(1) of Regulation (EU) 468/2014 (ECB/2014/17) and irrespective of the method used for the calculation of their risk-weighted exposure amounts.

EU, 26 November 2018

FSI publishes comparative analysis on stress-testing banks

The Financial Stability Institute (FSI) of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has published a paper in which it reviews system-wide stress tests carried out for banks in the euro-area, Japan, Switzerland and the United States.

FSI, 27 November 2018