Michaela Rolfe

(via email)

Your ref
Our ref / IAT/FOIA/0163-16
Date / 5 February 2015

Dear Ms Rolfe

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FoIA’) - Request for information

Thank you for your email of 1 February in which you asked for the following information:-

‘The Office of Fair Trading, now defunct, released a press release on 20th March 2014 stating it had ordered 17 unnamed bank and building societies to compensate 497,000 customers re failures to comply with the consumer credit act. I am requesting the names of the organisations and the numbers of failures per organisation.’

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the FOIA’) you are entitled to be told whether or not the Competition and Markets Authority (‘the CMA’) holds the information you have requested and, if it does, to be supplied with a copy of it.

Having searchedour records in connection with information which the CMA may hold on this matter,I can confirm that the CMA does not hold any relevant information.

It may be helpful for me to explain why this is the case. As you may know, the OFT closed in April 2014 and its former functions were divided between the CMA and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). For reasons of administrative convenience some information formerly held by the OFT regarding its investigations generally, including investigations in the financial services sector, passed to the CMA, not just to the FCA.

However, on closure of the OFT, its statutory role in the regulation of activities in the consumer credit sector – such as the activities of banks and building socities – did not pass to the CMA. These functions, together with the relevant staff,expertise, detailed knowledge and relevant files and other documents created under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, all passed to the FCA.

Therefore, the FCA is the authority most likely to hold the type of information you have requested, and I would suggest you contact them directly, if you have not already done so. For your convenience, I have provided their contact details below:

25 The North Colonnade

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5HS

Email :

Tel: +44 (0)20 7066 8080

Appeals Procedure

If you are not satisfied with this response, please see attached Annex A for details of how to request an Internal Review.

Yours sincerely

Nigel Bussey

Information Access Team

Competition & Markets Authority

Annex A

Internal Review Process

If you wish to complain about the way in which your request for information has been handled, you may seek an internal review by writing to:

The Internal Review Co-ordinator

Information Access Team

Sixth Floor

Competition & Markets Authority

Victoria House

37 Southampton Row

London

WC1B 4AD

You may alternatively send an e-mail to

We will deal with your complaint within 20 working days of receipt or, if this is not possible, advise you of a date by which we expect to have completed a review of your complaint.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response you have the right to complain to:

The Information Commissioner

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF