Consumer Protection (Regulation of Retail Credit and Credit Servicing Firms) Act 2022

Amendment of section 29A of Act of 1997

4. Section 29A of the Act of 1997 is amended—

(a) in subsection (1) —

(i) by the substitution of “for the purposes of paragraph (e) of the definition of ‘retail credit firm’ in section 28(1) if,” for “from being required to hold an authorisation as a retail credit firm in relation to the provision of credit if,”,

(ii) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a):

“(a) the total amount or value of the relevant activities that are to be carried out by the person is such that it is reasonable to assume that the borrower or hirer, as the case may be, will be in a position to negotiate on equal terms or to obtain appropriate legal and financial advice, or”,

(iii) in paragraph (c) by the substitution of “carries out relevant activities” for “provides credit”, and

(iv) by the substitution of “orderly regulation of relevant activities” for “orderly regulation of the provision of credit”,

(b) in subsection (2) —

(i) by the substitution of “for the purposes of paragraph (e) of the definition of ‘retail credit firm’ in section 28(1) if,” for “from being required to hold an authorisation as a retail credit firm in relation to the provision of credit if,”,

(ii) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a):

“(a) the total amount or value of the relevant activities that are to be carried out by those persons is such that it is reasonable to assume that the borrowers or hirers, as the case may be, will be in a position to negotiate on equal terms or to obtain appropriate legal and financial advice, or”,

(iii) in paragraph (c) by the substitution of “carry out relevant activities” for “provide credit”, and

(iv) by the substitution of “orderly regulation of relevant activities” for “orderly regulation of the provision of credit”,

(c) in subsection (3), by the substitution of “for the purposes of paragraph (e) of the definition of ‘retail credit firm’ in section 28(1) ” for “from being required to hold an authorisation as a retail credit firm”,

(d) in subsection (9), by the substitution of “An exemption granted under this section shall apply to a person who, or a person belonging to a class of persons that, is exempted under this section, so long as the person” for “Section 29(1) does not apply to a person who, or a person belonging to a class of persons that, is exempted under this section so long as the person”, and

(e) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (9):

“(10) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a) and subsection (2)(a), “the total amount or value of the relevant activities that are to be carried out” means—

(a) in relation to the provision of credit, the total amount or value of credit that is to be provided, together with any interest payable in respect of the credit,

(b) in relation to a consumer-hire agreement, the sum of the instalments and any other amounts payable under the agreement, and

(c) in relation to a hire-purchase agreement, the hire-purchase price (within the meaning of section 65 of the Act of 1995).”.