Our Services

Consumer Credit

Consumer Credit Authorisation by FCA

Consumer Credit is now regulated by the FCA, which represents a significant tightening of supervision and monitoring.

Consumer credit firms include credit card issuers, credit brokers, payday lenders, log book lenders, peer-to-peer lenders, pawnbrokers, and debt management and debt collection firms. In order to offer Consumer Credit Regulated Services a firm must be authorised by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

A firm or business that wants to carry on regulated consumer credit activities will have to apply for FCA authorisation. We will assist you in establishing whether your firm’s activities are regulated, if they are we will provide throughout assistance in preparing your application for authorisation, unless there is an exemption or exclusion, and more specifically for limited or full permission.

Authorisation criteria:

To become an authorised consumer credit firm, you have to show you meet our minimum standards – known as ‘threshold conditions’. You also have to comply with principles, rules about systems and controls and Consumer Credit rules held by FCA.

Limited or Full permission:

Depending on the regulated financial activities your consumer credit firm carries out, firm will have to apply to FCA for either limited or full permission. The minimum standards for limited permission and full permissions applications are different from each other.

Compliance services:

Our range of Consumer Credit FCA Applications include:

Full Permission
Limited Permission
Approved Person Application and Section 178 change of controller
Variation of Permission, including your reason for variation documentation; be that changing from limited to full, or simply adding to your existing permissions

Consumer Credit Authorisation Services:

We will assess your business and help you to determine whether you need to apply for Full or Limited permission.

We will advise you in preparation of your application well in advance, especially if we have given you a dedicated application period, as it will take some time to gather and prepare the information. An application for authorisation to carry out consumer credit activities needs to include detailed information about your business, its structure and financial resources. We will provide specialist consultancy services in following areas:

Financial Planning & Forecasts:

Our qualified accountants will prepare all financial information necessary for the application. They will prepare opening balance sheet, forecast balance sheet, monthly cash flow forecast, and monthly profit and loss forecast according to FCA’s requirement. You’ll have complete financial model customised to your business.

Regulatory Business Plan:

The regulatory business plan is an important part of the overall application and integral to FCA’s decision-making process. It is important that the regulatory business plan is tailored to your firm’s activities. Our specialist consultant who have detailed insight on FCA’s regulation will help you to prepare customised regulatory business plan.

Compliance Monitoring Program:

Firms need to have a compliance monitoring program in place. We also provide ongoing compliance monitoring services should you wish to outsource Compliance Monitoring Program after Authorisation.

Treating Customer Fairly (TCF):

Our specialist business consultants will assess the key internal and external risks to your business and provide you with mitigation plan to encounter these risks. We will use various financial and business model to identify and analyse the specific risk factors concerning your business which will help you to manage business risks effectively.

FCA Approved Person Application:

At least one individual in most consumer credit firms must be ‘approved’ by us when a firm applies to be authorised. We will process application for individual who will be approved to perform one or more activities on behalf of an authorised firm and satisfy FCA’s requirement for Consumer Credit application.

Systems and Controls:

We will advise you regarding the IT system requirement you need to meet and liaise with your IT consultant to develop the right system for your business.

Business Continuity Procedures (BCP):

We will help you to produce full Business continuity and disaster recovery plan which is required for the authorisation application.

Application Pack Preparation:

We will help you to fill our necessary application forms and prepare documents in order to produce high quality professional application pack for submission.

Subsequent Services:

We will not stop supporting you after your application rather we will continue to support and help you to deal with any subsequent enquires by FCA.

Are you looking for MLR & FCA compliance support?

Our Assistance

We will assist you to meet your compliance requirements including accountancy and Anti-Money Laundering, review your current setup and advise on improvements. Which includes:

Training to staff and members of firm (Post Authorisation- understanding the rules).
Assistance with completing your GABRIEL reports, in line with your accounting reference dates – reducing stress and also the risk of late reporting fines.
Guidance in using the new FCA’s I-Receivables on-line invoicing system.
Telephone and email support, assisting you with any FCA queries you may have.
Providing you with monthly newsletters containing regulatory updates.