Since our last publication, the FCA and PSR have appointed a new chair and the FCA has published insight into who is currently driving consumer credit growth.

UK

New Chair of FCA and PSR announced

HM Treasury has published a press release that Charles Randell CBE has been appointed as the new Chair of the FCA and Chair of the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR), with effect from 1 April 2018. The FCA and the PSR have published separate press releases which confirm that the appointments are each for a five year term. Mr Randell replaces John Griffith-Jones in both roles, whose departure on 31 March 2018 was announced in July 2017.

HM Treasury, 5 January 2018

FCA publishes analysis of who is driving consumer credit growth

The FCA has published an Insight article that considers who is driving consumer credit growth. Rather than looking at aggregated data from larger lenders to monitor which lenders and products are driving credit growth, the FCA requested credit reference agency data for one in ten UK consumers, in order to scrutinise possible risks in recent trends. The FCA's conclusions included the following:

• Credit growth has not been driven by subprime borrowers;
• People without mortgages have mainly driven credit growth;
• Consumers remain indebted for longer than product-level data implies.

FCA, 8 January 2017

FCA consults on aligning FSCS levy time period

The FCA has published a consultation paper on aligning the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) levy period (CP18/1). This follows the decision made in October 2017 by the FCA to align the FSCS compensation levy year with the financial year. This resulted in unintended consequences for the allocation of costs to the life and pensions intermediation class. The FCA is now consulting on transitional provisions that would delay the effect of this change to allow the life and pensions intermediation class to continue to benefit from support from the retail pool.

FCA, 4 January 2018

Memorandum of understanding between FCA and FRC

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that it has entered into with the FCA. The MoU focuses on:

• the respective roles and responsibilities of the FRC and the FCA;
• information-sharing, information requests and confidentiality between the two bodies; and
• cooperation on other topics including standard-setting, enforcement and international issues.

FRC, 3 January 2018

Government consults on fairer debt ruling processes

The Ministry of Justice has published a consultation on the issuance of default county court judgments. This follows incidents where rogue companies deliberately issued claims to consumers with the wrong address, resulting in damage to credit ratings for affected consumers. The consultation proposes a number of ways to remedy the problem, focusing on potential immediate removal of a judgment from the register where a judge finds that the consumer was not notified, ways to best protect consumers who were unaware of a judgment which was sent to the wrong address, and creating a source of information raising awareness of the issue.

Ministry of Justice, 27 December 2017

Bank of England announces consultation on authorisation and supervision approach

The Bank of England has announced that it is consulting on an updated approach to authorising and supervising international banks and insurers for which it will issue guidance. The approach will be founded on the presumption that there will continue to be a high degree of supervisory cooperation between the UK and the EU and the UK's financial system should be kept open to foreign institutions as much as possible to boost economic dynamism.

Bank of England, 20 December 2017

EU

European Commission adopts first Report on the functioning of the ODR platform

The European Commission has adopted its first report on the functioning of the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform. The ODR platform, which was launched in February 2016, is designed to assist consumers and traders resolve their disputes about online purchases without going to court. The platform connects disputing parties with alternative dispute resolution bodies. The report includes steps taken to establish the ODR platform and actions planned by the Commission to ensure its continued proper functioning.

European Commission, 13 December 2017