All firms who hold a current Consumer Credit Licence received a letter from the Financial Conduct Authority earlier this year advising they will take over regulation of consumer credit activities from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on the 1st April 2014.
A further letter is now being sent informing licence holders to ensure that their details are up-to-date. You can check your details here . Licence holders will be required to register with the FCA for ‘interim permission’ from September 2013 onwards.
Anyone holding a Consumer Credit Licence who wishes to carry out consumer credit activities from April 2014 you will need to register with the FCA and pay the relevant fee - £150 for sole traders and £350 for all other firms. This will need to be paid on top of any 5 yearly 'maintenance fee' already paid!
The FCA will write once the registration process opens and will explain exactly how to proceed. Firms that are already FCA regulated will be referred to as having applied for an ‘interim variation of permission’.
A further stage will require you to apply for full permission/variation of permission, by a date yet to be set by the FCA. Different dates are expected to be set for different categories of activity - the earliest date to apply for full authorisation is expected to be from mid 2014.
The Government has proposed that the interim regime will end by the 1st April 2016, except for firms whose application is still in progress.