On 1 April 2014 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) takes over from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as your new consumer credit regulator.
- That means from September 2013 you will need to register with the FCA, or you will not be able to carry on regulated consumer credit activities from 1 April 2014
- You need to take action now to make sure your details are correct on the OFT register at www.oft.gov.uk/consumer-credit-changes
- If your licence category details are not right, you could risk operating illegally and you will face delays when you try to register with the FCA from September
What you need to do now
Go to www.oft.gov.uk/consumer-credit-changes to check your name, address and company details are right and update them if necessary. This will save you time when you register with the FCA from September.
You should also make sure your licence covers all the activities you want to continue after 1 April 2014. If you don’t have the right licence categories covered, and you conduct business in those categories, you risk acting illegally.
Want to know more?
There is more information about the changes and how they will affect you overleaf and on the FCA website at www.fca.org.uk/consumer-credit, where you can also sign up for email updates.