Paul Clark, CEO of Charter UK, the enterprise complaints and feedback specialist, comments on the repercussions of the FCA taking over responsibility for the regulation of consumer credit from 1st April.

“From the moment that the FCA takes charge of the regulation of consumer credit on 1^st April, firms in this sector are going to face a compliance burden that is very different to what they have experienced under the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) previously. However, whilst the demands that this will place on companies will be stringent and unfamiliar, they are not insurmountable.

The truth is that these new regulations don’t have to conflict with business operations at all. From a customer service perspective, the FCA will want to see evidence that firms have a clear overview of all interactions with customers and can prove that they were treated fairly. If carried out effectively, this change actually has great potential for driving business improvement, as this information will enable firms to identify which factors drive customer dissatisfaction, whilst also highlighting any processing errors or other operational bottlenecks.

With such important benefits on offer for firms as well as consumers, we should concern ourselves with ensuring that the nation’s consumer credit firms are able to meet the burden of the FCA’s regulation as efficiently and effectively as possible.  This way, we can actually help firms to embrace the burden of compliance and actually improve their offering, rather than simply quitting the market altogether, as the FCA has predicted.”