FCA survey of credit brokers

The FCA will shortly be sending a survey to all firms holding the credit broking permission. The survey is intended to give the FCA an updated view of whether and how firms are using the credit broking permission. Questions will be relevant to the firm’s business model and include, for example, the type of credit broking activity carried out, including how the firm is remunerated and how many creditors the firm has a relationship with.

The survey should be quick and simple to complete. It should be possible to complete within no more than 30 minutes, but it may be less for some firms. Firms will have 15 working days to submit their responses.

Whilst the FCA is not using its formal information gathering powers for this survey, the FCA does expect firms to complete it. If a firm does not complete the survey, the FCA may contact them to understand the reasons for this.

The FCA is planning to send the survey initially to 300 firms as a pilot exercise on 20th May 2021. Following the pilot exercise, the FCA expects to send the survey to the remainder of firms holding the credit broking permission in batches over two weeks from 5th July 2021.

Firms will receive a warm-up/introduction email in the week before they receive the survey. Firms will then be emailed a link to complete the survey online. The link will be unique to each firm. If firms need a different individual within their organisation (or a consultant) to answer and submit the survey, the link can be forwarded to the required person.

The email will be sent from either FCA@fcanewsletters.org.uk or FCACreditBrokingSurvey@fca.org.uk