While, according to the Financial Conduct Authority, "the last" of the passported organisations are being assessed for full authorisation under the legal and regulatory regime in the UK, some of them, and businesses already authorised, are offering unregulated products through a regulated company.

The "products" which the Authority are specifically concerned with now are "buy now, pay later" schemes.

It is surprising that the Authority does not regulate such schemes as since 2014 it has been the regulator for consumer credit. Buy Now, Pay Later is a form of credit and so the question must be asked : "if hire purchase and credit cards, both of which provide loans for goods which the customer immediately takes delivery of, how does "buy now, pay later" not fall within that class of lending?"

The Authority says "This means that firms, even if they are regulated by us for some of the products and services they offer, are not required to ensure that exempt BNPL products meet our rules, such as checking that a customer can afford to repay the loan. These customers also have fewer rights and protections and for example, are unable to [make] a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong."

The Authority goes on "Being authorised for regulated lending means that the FCA has assessed a firm’s approach to ensuring interest bearing loans are affordable for consumers and that firms are offering suitable forbearance to consumers in financial difficulty. Amongst other things, firms are required to demonstrate their approach to dealing with vulnerable customers and how their products comply with the Consumer Duty."

If that is the case, and if the Authority really considers this important, why, in the nine years since it took over responsibility for consumer credit from local authorities, has it not classified Buy Now, Pay Later as a regulated consumer credit service?

It's not difficult to do so. It's negligent, reckless or a wilful dereliction of duty not to.