Pearse Doherty
Question:132. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance his plans to simplify and consolidate financial consumer protection legislation. [16846/16]
View answerTuesday, 21 June 2016
Questions (132)
Written answers
My Department continues to keep financial legislation relating to consumer protection under review to ensure consumers are protected. Given that financial consumer protection law is contained within national and European legislation, its consolidation would be an extremely large and complex piece of work and is not something that is currently planned.
The Deputy should also be aware that there is already a large and heavy agenda in the area of consumer protection legislation.
By way of example, as you know the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act, 2015 was enacted on 8 July 2015. It was introduced to fill the consumer protection gap where loans were sold by the original lender to an unregulated entity.
In the area of residential mortgages, the European Union (Consumer Mortgage Credit Agreements) Regulations 2016 (SI 142/16) have transposed the Mortgage Credit Directive into Irish law. This Directive provides that certain minimum consumer information and protection measures such as the provision of standardised pre-contractual information, common requirements for the calculation of the APRC, the requirement on a lender to conduct a credit worthiness assessment prior to offering mortgage credit are to apply across the EU. The Deputy may wish note that Directive also places an onus on the EU Commission to undertake a review of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the Directive's provisions on consumers and the internal market by 2019.
Furthermore, there are a number of projects being progressed by my Department at present. By way of illustration, the Payment Accounts Directive must be transposed by 18 September 2016. The main elements of the Payment Accounts Directive focus on transparency and comparability of payment account fees, payment account switching, and access to payment accounts with basic features for all EU consumers. The Directive also allows Member States to take additional measures to ensure access to basic payment accounts for unbanked, vulnerable consumers.
In addition, the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) aims to further develop the aims of the first Payment Services Directive (PSD1) by regulating new market players, enhancing consumer protection, ensuring competition within the industry whilst maintaining a level playing field, and harmonising the regulations across Europe. PSD2 is due to be transposed in all Member States by 13 January 2018.