Ex-City minister seeks answers on Collateral collapse

THE GOVERNMENT and the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) role in the regulation of collapsed peer-to-peer lender Collateral has been put under parliamentary scrutiny.

Former City minister Lord Myners – who has already urged the government to help set up independent enquiries into the collapse of Lendy – has submitted a series of parliamentary questions about Collateral.

Lord Myners, who has issued six questions relating to the Lendy collapse since June, this week started asking for more information about the supervision of Collateral.

Read more: What do we know a year on from Collateral closure

He questioned whether there were similarities between the collapse of Collateral, Lendy and London Capital & Finance that supported the case for a change in regulation. He also asked when the FCA first became aware that Collateral was operating without the correct authorisation.

He also asked both the government and the regulator why Collateral was still allowed to take new client money when it was not authorised, how it was able to change its name on the FCA register during that time and whether any action was taken by the government.

There have not been any responses to the queries yet and it is unclear what action the government, rather than the FCA, could have taken.

Manchester-based Collateral closed down at the end of February 2018 after it emerged that it had been operating without the correct regulatory permissions.

It has since moved from administration to liquidation, with several outstanding issues such as discrepancies in the valuation of assets and bank account balances.