The Minister for Finance has announced Government approval to draft
legislation to provide that all firms which offer personal contract
plan (“PCP”), hire purchase and other similar
credit-type agreements to consumers will be required to be
authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”) as
“retail credit firms”. The CBI will then be able to
apply its Consumer Protection Code (“CPC”) and other
consumer protection powers to such firms, with the aim of improving
the level of protection available to consumers.
As the announcement states, the Tutty report on the PCP market published in
November 2018 outlined a number of recommendations to improve the
level of consumer protection in relation to the provision of PCP
and hire purchase agreements. The new legislation will give effect
to those recommendations. It is currently proposed that this be
done by expanding the definition of “retail credit
firms” in Part V of the Central Bank Act 1997, which already
provides for the
