All new regulation for the consumer credit market should be examined by the government for unintended and potentially damaging consequences, said Stephen Sklaroff, FLA director general at the FLA Consumer Finance Conference today.
The industry is still implementing a huge volume of new regulation created by the last Government and this comes at a cost, he will say.
“Some customers are already finding it hard to get credit in the regulated markets, raising the risk of financial exclusion and, as a result, more frequent recourse to loan sharks. In April the amount of credit granted by FLA members was 9% lower than in April 2009,” he will say.
Sklaroff said: “If we are to avoid the serious social and economic consequences of a smaller, more polarised consumer credit market, a proper balance needs to be struck between consumer protection and maintaining a competitive market.”
