How do we check compliance with the Lending Code?

FLA Lending Code Group Board

The Lending Code Group was created in 2000 and derives its authority from the Finance & Leasing Association’s (FLA) Board and has a remit which covers all matters relating to compliance with the FLA Lending Code.

Monitoring of the Code is undertaken by the Code Group, which, among other things, can recommend action the FLA should take if any member is found to be in breach of the Code.

The Group meets five times a year to monitor compliance with the Code and recommend action to the FLA.

How does the Group monitor compliance?

Each year, the Chief Executive of each lender signed up to the Code signs a Statement of Compliance, which states that the company is complying, and will continue to comply, with the provisions of the Lending Code for the next 12 months.

To monitor this, members of the Code Group undertake random compliance visits to member companies, checking management information and talking to front-line staff and Compliance Managers to make sure that they understand their responsibilities to customers under the Lending Code.

In addition, FLA Code staff monitor complaints, and any recurring companies or issues are flagged up to the Code Group, who will then decide whether to investigate further.

For serious breaches of the FLA Lending Code identified by the Code Group, where the lender concerned refuses to take corrective action, the FLA also has a Disciplinary Panel, which is independent of the Code Group. The Disciplinary Panel can make recommendations on future conduct, issue formal or informal warnings, or - in the most serious of cases, where there is potential reputational damage to the Code itself - recommend to the FLA Board that the member concerned be expelled from the FLA.

Who is on the Code Group?

The Lending Code Group is made up of a combination of independent and industry practitioners:

Professor Geoffrey Woodroffe (Chairman)

Geoffrey is a Solicitor. He was formerly Director of the Centre for Consumer and Commercial Law Research, Brunel University, and Principal of the College of Law, Chester. He was a Director of the National Consumer Council and the Funeral Ombudsman. He is a consultant with Which?, the OFT and BIS. He is the author of Woodroffe & Lowe’s Consumer Law and Practice (8th Edition 2010).

Nick Lord

Nick Lord has worked in the consumer advice and advocacy field for25 years. His past posts include senior Money Advice roles at Citizens Advice and National Lead Tutor for the Money Advice Trust. He now works as a consultant in money advice and personal finance issues.

Frances Harrison

Frances has worked in areas of consumer and financial policy and advice provision at the National Consumer Council, Citizens Advice and local authority regulatory services.

Helena Wiesner

Helena is a consumer affairs specialist, with particular emphasis on financial services. She has served as a public interest member of a number of regulatory bodies, most recently as a Council member of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and was previously Deputy Chairman of the Personal Investment Authority. She has served as a Director of the National Consumer Council, Financial Ombudsman Service and the Investors Compensation Scheme.

Sally Coles

Sally Coles has been involved in and around advice work and training for 30 years. She worked for Shelter for 12 years before setting up her own training and consultancy company. Sally is a MAT and IMA approved trainer and specialises in designing and delivering training courses around best practice models. She has written various articles for advice sector journals and currently writes the ‘ABC of money advice’ column in Quarterly Account.

Claire Whyley

Claire Whyley is a professional researcher, policy analyst, and consumer champion. She is currently a freelance consultant helping organisations develop their capacity to understand and respond to consumer needs, and undertaking specialist research and policy development in the fields of consumer disadvantage, poverty, debt, credit regulation, financial and social exclusion. She is also a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel.

Peter Tutton

Peter Tutton has been a social policy officer at Citizens Advice since 2004 working on credit and debt issues.

Industry Practitioners

Judith Mullen, Head of Internal Audit, Paragon Group plc

Richard Tatford, Operations Director, GMAC UK plc

Robert Cholmondeley, Head of Compliance, HFC Bank Ltd

FLA Staff

Megan Charles, Compliance Manager, FLA

Patsy Calnan, Code Administrator, FLA

Hanifa Teladia, Code Administrator, FLA