By the end of November, 31,139 consumer credit firms had registered for interim permission with the Financial Conduct Authority. All of these firms would have been eligible for the early bird discount which ended in December.
Leslie Titcomb, Chief Operating Officer at the FCA, said of the figures:“Over 31,000 firms have already registered for interim permission placing us well ahead of schedule as we move closer to 1st April, when the FCA takes over the regulation of consumer credit. To put that into perspective, there are 27,000 firms currently supervised by the FCA. This has been a significant challenge so we have made a huge effort to work with industry so firms are aware of the forthcoming changes.
“Firms that haven’t yet signed up for an interim permission have until 1st April to do so; we would encourage people to register sooner rather than later.”
Interim permission, which costs £150 for sole traders and £350 for most firms, allows companies to offer consumer credit services until applications for full authorisation opens on the 1st April 2014 or changes are made to business activity.
Fees will be ranked according to income generated by a business’ credit activity, meaning that the smaller firms will pay the lowest fees.
The FCA has sent out fee proposals for consultation, which closes on the 6th of January.
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