On 12 September 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published Consultation Paper CP24/19 on Consumer Credit Regulatory Returns: Credit Broking, Debt Adjusting, Debt Counselling and Providing Credit Information Services (CP24/19). CP24/19 sets out the FCA’s proposal to issue a new regulatory reporting return for consumer credit firms who engage in one or more of the regulated activities of credit broking, debt adjusting, debt counselling, and providing credit information services.

The aim of the FCA’s proposals is to improve the information it collects from firms so that it can better understand their consumer credit activities and proactively supervise firms to identify and prevent risk of harm to consumers earlier on. The FCA notes that collecting better quality information will enhance its ability to identify risks of harm and to intervene quicker, in line with its overarching data-led strategy. The design of the new return aims to tailor the set of questions so they are more readily aligned to firms’ business model and activities and use common industry terminology to help understanding.

Next steps

The deadline for responses to CP24/19 is 31 October 2024.

The FCA is also sharing, as part of the consultation, a prototype of the return with in-scope firms – it plans to email the link directly to firms before the end of September 2024. The prototype is intended to allow firms to understand exactly which questions will be relevant to their business and expected to be completed. Submitting data through the prototype is completely voluntary, but the FCA says it would allow it to further assess whether the data it intends to collect meets the needs set out in CP24/19.

The FCA aims to publish a final policy statement, including its response to feedback received, in Spring 2025.