30 Mar 2015, 12:44 pm
The Electronic Commerce Directive (Financial Services and Markets) (Amendment) Order 2015 (4-page / 43KB PDF), which came into force on Tuesday, gives the FCA powers to prohibit European Economic Area (EEA)-based providers of certain "credit-related activities" from providing their services to UK consumers or alternatively allow them to do so only if they agreed to its "specified requirements".
The FCA's powers to intervene only apply if it is "satisfied that the incoming provider directs all or most of its activity to the United Kingdom" and that the businesses are seeking to circumvent the UK's regulatory regime by basing themselves elsewhere in the EEA.
The new rules give the FCA the freedom to either "impose new regulatory requirements" on those businesses or require the operators of those services to be authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act if they wish to continue providing their services to UK consumers, an explanatory note attached to the new legislation said.
Businesses which could be impacted by the new rules include non-UK credit brokers and operators of online lending platforms.