Consumer Credit and Anti-Money Laundering

We’ve produced a range of guidance providing advice and information on assurance and regulatory compliance.

Consumer credit authorisation

HM Treasury passed legislation in Parliament which changed the consumer credit regime for housing associations operating in the UK. 

The changes apply to housing associations which:

• hold mortgages or other loans secured on land
• which are not first legal charges or mortgages
• were entered into before 1 April 2014.

We’ve produced guidance to assist housing associations both in applying legislation to their businesses and in understanding how and when to get authorised for consumer credit/FCA regulated activities, where appropriate.

Anti-money laundering

Housing associations that engage in estate agent activity are required to comply with anti-money laundering regulations. The supervision of estate agents under the Money Laundering Regulations rests with HMRC.

• You can read more in the Government's Money laundering supervision for estate agency businesses guidance

Businesses regulated by the Money Laundering Regulations must report activity that may be linked to money laundering or terrorist financing to the National Crime Agency (NCA), in the form of a Suspicious Activity Report. Further details can be found on the NCA’s website.

What does the Economic Crime Levy mean for housing associations?

Rachel Orgill-Harris, Partner at Devonshires, looks at how the Economic Crime Levy might affect housing associations.

Data protection

All businesses are required to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018, as regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). 

The ICO website contains useful information for housing associations on data collection, processing, retention and protection, and key requirements under the Act such as responding to Data Subject Access Requests. 

The Data Protection Act is the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which has applied in the UK from May 2018.