Selling goods and services on credit? You might want to do a spring clean on your credit-broking activities

We are all familiar with the interest-free or low-cost credit offers used to entice us towards that larger purchase whether it is a new car, sofa or kitchen. Credit-broking has been subject to regulatory supervision for decades but has largely slipped under the radar in terms of more intense scrutiny. That is about to change. The FCA has launched a pilot survey which has been sent to 300 of the UK's 32,000 firms with credit-broking permissions with plans to circulate it to all firms once the pilot is complete. If your business model relies on your ability to make credit available, now would be a very good time to get the drains up to check that you are still complying with the regulatory requirements and that there has been no operational drift.