Member

28: After Clause 3, insert the following new Clause— “Access to affordable credit(1) The Financial Conduct Authority must—(a) within 12 months of the passing of this Act, establish, publish and maintain a framework for assessing and rating the performance of relevant deposit takers in providing access to affordable credit, and(b) annually publish updated ratings and scores produced by the Authority under the framework.(2) The framework must—(a) assess the extent to which relevant deposit takers serve the credit needs of individuals, households and small businesses, including those who are underserved by mainstream financial services, and(b) enable comparisons to be made between relevant deposit takers.(3) In developing the framework, the Authority must have regard to—(a) the distribution of lending across income groups, geographic areas and customer characteristics,(b) the availability of affordable credit to consumers who may otherwise be at risk of financial exclusion,(c) the provision of affordable credit to small and medium-sized enterprises, and social enterprises,(d) the extent to which a bank supports access to affordable credit through partnerships, referral arrangements and funding agreements, with credit unions, Community Development Finance Institutions or other community-based lenders, and(e) such other matters as the Authority considers relevant to the objective of promoting access to affordable credit.(4) For the purposes of subsection (2), the Authority may—(a) make use of regulatory data already collected by it, including product sales data,(b) require relevant deposit takers to provide such information as it reasonably considers necessary for the purposes of the framework, and(c) make different and proportionate provision for different sizes of business.(5) For the purposes of this section, “relevant deposit takers” are—(a) banks, within the meaning given of section 2 of the Banking Act 2009;(b) building societies, with the meaning of section 119 of the Building Societies Act 1986;which meet an Authority-set threshold for the total volume of personal and small and medium business lending.”Member’s explanatory statement This amendment requires the FCA to establish a framework assessing banks’ and building societies’ provision of affordable credit, including via partnerships with credit unions and CDFIs. It uses existing regulatory data where possible, with proportionate requirements for firms of different sizes.