Advisers falling into the A18 fee block, home finance providers, advisers and arrangers, will the see the total bill for this category fall from £18.2m to £16.3%, a drop of 10.6%. Lenders falling into the A2 category for home finance providers and adminstrators will see a bill reduction of 10.7% from £18.6m to £16.6m.
Firms which have consumer credit permissions, for example to undertake debt counselling, will pay the same fees as other firms in the CC2 fee block. The lowest minimum fee is £303 where income from any of the activities covered by this category is below £50,000.
The FCA has confirmed that firms only pay fees in the consumer credit fee blocks if they have applied for and have been given permission to undertake consumer credit activities. It added that it was for firms to judge whether they need consumer credit permissions to do their business, and which permissions they may need.
The regulator has provided an online fees calculator for firms to calculate their own individual liabilities based on the final rates listed in appendix 1 of the policy document.
This includes FCA periodic fees, the Financial Ombudsman Service general levies, the Money Advice Service levies, pensions guidance levies and Illegal Money Lending levy.
