Speaking at the FCA’s inaugural annual public meeting in London yesterday, chief executive Martin Wheatley said much change was needed in the sector.
“We want to see continual improvement in standards not just in lending companies but in credit brokers, in debt management, in many many aspects,” said Wheatley.
Responsibility for the regulation of the consumer credit market passed from the Office of Fair Trading to the FCA on the 1 April this year.
Since then the payday loan sector has faced the brunt of the FCA’s stronger enforcement powers with restrictions on rolling over loans and the overall cost of credit which payday lenders provide.
But Wheatley warned payday lending was not the FCA’s only priority in its bid to clean up the consumer credit market.
“There is a broad question on how much further we need to extend the attentive approach to payday lenders, which, remember in terms of the consumer credit market constitutes roughly 1 to 2% of the total market.
“So whilst [payday] is very high profile the consumer credit market is very large and extends to many aspects of consumers experience of purchasing on credit and they are areas which we will be turning our attention to over the coming year.”
