Earlier this week, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) published its board minutes from the meeting held on 25 May 2023.
Debt management firms may be interested to note that the board discussed the proposed policy statement on debt packagers. The FCA later published Policy Statement 23/5: Debt Packagers: Feedback to CP23/5 and final rules on 2 June 2023 (the FCA’s press release is available by clicking here and you can read my earlier post on the changes to CONC).
The following key points were noted by the FCA’s board members:
– the FCA’s team assured the board that any consequential risk on capacity in the debt advice sector from introducing the ban should be minimal and absorbable; and
– the Board was comfortable with the rationale for setting the implementation period at four months, and concluded that this, along with the mitigating steps the team proposed the FCA take during that period, was sufficient to appropriately balance the interests of firms with the urgent need to protect consumers from the harm.