The FCA has announced that it is taking its first criminal action against an individual who has been acting as an unlicensed consumer credit lender. The FCA alleges that the individual conducted a regulated activity without authorisation, in breach of section 19 of Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, over a number of years by entering into and administrating regulated credit agreements as a lender. The individual is believed to have lent in excess of £1 million since 2013, while neither in possession of a consumer credit licence from the Office of Fair Trading (prior to 1 April 2014), or equivalent authorisation by the FCA.

View FCA firms criminal action against individual acting as unlicensed consumer credit lender, 17 January 2017