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Credit Protection Revisited

The recent decision by one of the main bank owned invoice financiers to withdraw from the provision of credit protection has highlighted a continuing debate within the industry on issues arising from the interface between bad debt protection on the one hand and the provision of insurance on the other hand.

It is now widely understood within the industry that the provision of insurance is a regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”) which requires providers to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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Bills of Sale escape extinction

The Government recently announced that it does not intend to legislate to implement the September 2016 Law Commission proposals to modernise the archaic Bills of Sale regime:

“Given the concerns that were raised in the consultation, the small and reducing market and the wider work on high-cost credit, the government will not introduce legislation at this point in time. The government will continue to work with the FCA as they carry out their high-cost credit review, and then further consider government action on alternatives to high-cost credit in light of the FCA’s review”.

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GDPR Bedding In

It has been almost 6 months since the GDPR regime came into effect, and early signs would suggest that the invoice finance industry has adapted well to the new requirements.

As expected there was something of a last-minute rush to ensure compliance, but fears were perhaps eased by helpful comments from the Information Commissioner such as she made on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 25 May 2018:

“We are not looking for perfection. We do not have thousands of inspectors going out and checking people’s homework. What we do have are millions of people that have new rights and they can make a complaint against a company to our office”.

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GDPR is here

Whatever might eventually happen with Brexit, most informed observers will have recently had cause to reflect upon the differential between data protection law in the European Union and that in other advanced jurisdictions such as the US. The recent publicity involving Facebook has emphasised the fact that European Union law is light-years ahead of other mature jurisdictions in this respect.

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