Countess of Mar
Main Page: Countess of Mar (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Countess of Mar's debates with the HM Treasury
(10 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Newby
My Lords, as the noble Lord knows, the Government are already committed to funding credit unions to a considerable extent. On the issue of free money advice, the Money Advice Service has allocated some £38.1 million this year to fund free debt advice, which will be given through organisations such as Citizens Advice and StepChange.
The Countess of Mar (CB)
My Lords, I had just such a cold call this morning and the person who made it did not leave their address or their name. It was a tape-recorded message. Is there anything that I can do about that? Can the Minister say what will be done to protect people who have pension funds from being scammed? There was a lot about that on the radio this morning.
Lord Newby
The FCA has very considerable powers to regulate all financial services firms in this area. In the sector we are looking at, it took on responsibility earlier in the year. It has introduced stricter rules and is putting in place new authorisation processes. But if the FCA finds that despite the way in which it is tightening up its procedures, there are still significant problems in respect of cold calling, it has the powers to intervene further.