I have an OFT licence, what should I do?

If you have a standard OFT licence it is presumably for one or more of the following reasons:

• You are undertaking an activity which is not permitted under the Institute’s group licence;
• You are not eligible to use the group licence; or
• Your consumer credit activities do not ‘arise in the course of the practice of accountancy or acting as an insolvency practitioner’.
  
  

  Assuming similar conditions apply after 1 April, ie :

• You undertake an activity which will not be permitted under the Institute’s future arrangements (basically the same activities as currently allowed under the group licence);
• You are not eligible under the new arrangements (for a transitional period, eligibility will be the same as under the group licence); or
• Your credit-related regulated activities do not arise out of, or are complementary to, one or more professional services which are provided to that client (incidentality)

You will need to register with the FCA.

Arrangements are in place for you to grandfather through to FCA ‘interim’ permission, using the arrangements set out in interim permission registration step-by-step guide..

Standard licence holders should already have received a joint letter from the OFT and the FCA. This asks you to visit their consumer credit changes web page to check that your name, address and company details are right and to update them if necessary. This will save you time when registering with the FCA. You are also asked to check that your licence covers all the activities you want to continue after 1 April 2014.

After 1 April 2014, your firm will need to complete a more detailed application for authorisation by the FCA, the timing of which will be confirmed by the FCA.

There is more information about the changes and about registering for the interim permission on the FCA’s website.