The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has called for a more user-friendly regulatory system from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in its response to the regulator’s ‘Future Mission’ consultation.

In it, Fiona Hoyle, head of Consumer and Mortgage Finance at the FLA, said: “Consumer credit firms now account for at least 35,000 of the 56,000 regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so we agree it is time for the FCA to review both its Mission and how it applies its resources.

“The vast majority of firms in our sector do not have designated supervisors to help them negotiate the highly complex mix of principles, conduct rules, guidance, threshold conditions, approved person standards, and the plethora of additional requirements that make up the current regulatory framework for consumer credit. The FCA needs an effective way to communicate with credit firms on a day to day basis.

“To aid compliance, we would like to see a more user-friendly regulatory system which is straightforward to access and that highlights changes when they are made. We also need to sort out the poor fit between the Consumer Credit Act and the rest of the FCA’s powers. The Act can still render credit agreements unenforceable for very minor reasons. Nothing similar applies in the other markets regulated by the FCA. We need a much more consistent and proportionate approach to supervision and redress.”

The FCA first revealed its Future Mission in October last year, in an event where FCA chief executive officer Andrew Bailey admitted greater transparency of the regulator would lead to it becoming more effective.

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