The FCA’s affordability rules have been in force since 2018. So why are lenders still lending to households who can’t afford the essentials?

‘Financial inclusion’ should help people withstand financial shocks, not deepen them. Yet the current agenda focuses overwhelmingly on increasing access to credit per se, rather than on credit that people can genuinely afford.

Efforts to tackle the harms caused by financial abuse have exposed a bigger truth: credit reporting must evolve. Context, fairness and accountability can’t be optional.

Calls for deregulation are ignoring the lessons of the past. In this blog we draw on our recent response to the FCA and FOS joint call for input concerning 'mass redress' events to highlight how a lack of clear rules and (de)regulatory 'sludge' combine to cause widespread consumer harm. We need better regulation not deregulation to support 'growth without consumer exploitation'.

The regulation of Buy Now Pay Later is a long time coming. In the meantime, lenders in this sector haven’t been making any contribution to the funding of debt advice. It's time for #BuyNowToPayNow

Following the Chancellor's Mansion House speech there have been calls for the FCA to review its creditworthiness and affordability rules. In this blog, we argue these regulations are not the reason why fewer low income households have been able to access credit in recent years. Those calling for a watering down of consumer protections are ignoring the wider context of the cost-of-living crisis which has made consumer credit less affordable.

A new report from Fair4All Finance argues there has been a severe decline in the availability of credit for lower income households, and that we should consider "regulatory adjustments" to address it. In our response, we argue that there is little evidence of a 'credit vacuum' and that now is not the time to embolden high-cost lenders who are trying to roll back the regulatory clock.

In November 2022, the FCA identified several serious failings with the current system of credit information reporting. These included poor governance arrangements, systemic inhibitors to innovation, and a lack of comprehensive and accurate reporting. In this blog, we provide our reflections on the FCA's proposed remedies and argue that fundamental changes are needed to the types of information being collected and reported.