Financial Conduct Authority

Lord Naseby Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Naseby]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Financial Conduct Authority has the authority to assess and monitor consumer finance products and anticipate their compliance with the law and the likelihood of their mis-selling.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, the Government have granted the Financial Conduct Authority a product intervention power to protect consumers. This power allows the regulator to mandate, restrict or ban certain features of a financial product, restrict a product’s sale to certain groups of consumers or ban a product outright. This power will extend to consumer finance products when the Financial Conduct Authority takes on responsibility for regulating consumer credit next April.

[Lord Naseby (Con)]

My Lords, that announcement is very welcome, although the delay to next April is one that I do not particularly welcome. Does the Minister recall that the FSA under its watch allowed PPI to happen, costing the banks that mis-sold it well over £1 billion and allowed CPP to sell credit card identity insurance, costing millions of pounds? Although this new body is set up, is it not worrying that the Consumer Panel has yet to meet? Can we have an assurance that practitioners of retail financial services will be on that panel, not least because the retail distribution review is now in force and there will be increasing numbers—millions of our citizens—investing in financial products without taking third party advice?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am sure that the FCA is well aware of the need to have a Consumer Panel that is as broadly based as possible. It is important to recognise that the FCA now has significant new powers: the product intervention power, the ability to ban products and powers to disclose details of warning notices, for example, as well as a power to take formal action against misleading financial promotions and disclose the fact that it has done so. It has more teeth, and all the evidence so far shows that it intends to use them.