Home collected credit market investigation reference (OFT)
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) referred the home collected credit market to the Competition Commission (CC) for investigation.
Action before reference
See the home collected credit super-complaint that led to this reference.
Reasons for reference
Date of reference: 20 December 2004.
The OFT has referred the Home collected credit market to the Competition Commission (CC) for investigation. Home credit is the provision of credit, typically small sum cash loans, the repayments for which are collected in instalments (often weekly or fortnightly) by collectors who call at the customer's home. The OFT's consideration of this market follows a super-complaint under section 11 of the Enterprise Act 2002 made by the National Consumer Council (NCC) on 14 June 2004. Having considered the NCC super-complaint, and the responses to the follow up consultation, the OFT is of the view that the legal test for a market investigation reference is met. Competition among home credit lenders appears to be restricted, with lenders having limited incentive to compete on price or to attempt to win business by taking over other lenders’ loans.
Key documents
- Press release OFT refers home credit market to competition commission 20 December 2004
- (pdf 275kb) January 2005
- (pdf 22kb) January 2005.
Information on the Competition Commission’s home credit market investigation can be found on GOV.UK.