Following representations made by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) and the Association of Finance Brokers (AFB), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced discounts for early registration with them and the intention to provide rebates for longer term OFT licence holders.

Firms that hold consumer credit licences are now able to register with the FCA to begin the process of transferring from the old OFT regime to come under the new FCA’s consumer credit remit.

The Government has also announced that it will provide a rebate programme to reflect the closure of the CCL regime under the OFT.

In addition to this it will also be providing a 30% early registration discount for those CCL holders that register before 30 November.

Robert Sinclair (pictured), chief executive of AMI, said: “Following the concerns raised by AMI and AFB, FCA has announced that the Government is to provide a programme of rebates for licence holders to acknowledge the unnecessary fees paid for indefinite consumer credit licences under the OFT’s regime.

“We are grateful that the Government recognised the issues raised and will offer rebates to those firms that have already incurred the substantial cost of obtaining a new consumer credit licence since 2008. These broker firms should not be unfairly disadvantaged because of unforeseen changes to the regulatory architecture.

“Firms are now able to register their consumer credit licence with the FCA ahead of the transfer process. We would encourage firms to not delay in checking that their licence details are correct and then registering with the FCA to take advantage of the 30% discount.”