All regulatory responsibility for advice on CCA activity passes from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority on 31 March 2014, with an authorisation deadline of 1 April 2014.
The paper CP13/14 – Regulatory fees and levies: policy proposals for 2014/15 can be found on the FCA website, with a deadline response of the 6th of January.
The consultation paper is offering the industry the chance to feedback on the fees payable to authorise second charge, bridging and payday lending advice among other activities under the Consumer Credit Act.
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, said: “The main issue from a broker’s perspective is brokers who have paid a one-off fee to the OFT will now have to pay another one to the FCA.”
Boulger said the bigger the firm the larger the total payment adding brokers should also be aware that holding client money demands another license.
“If for example a broker is holding upfront client fees and the loan doesn’t complete, it’s important not to be caught out by that,” he added.
The FCA proposes CCA fees will be charged on a sliding scale with firms below a minimum income threshold paying a minimum fee. (see table)
In the same paper, sister-title IFAonline reported the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out plans to cut regulatory fees by reallocating advisers who have permissions to hold client money or safeguard and administer assets to different fee blocks.
Under the proposed rules adviser fee block A13 will be merged with block A12 before a new block, A21, is formed in April next year.
The move will mean a reduction in fees for most advisers of about £4 on every £1,000 earned.
The FCA said it was considering the move to remove an anomaly in the fees system which allowed advisers in the A13 block to “lower their fees by taking on the additional permission of holding client money and safe custody assets, even though they do not want it”.
