New regime for consumer hire purchase, PCP finance and point of sale lending
The Consumer Protection (Regulation of Retail Credit and Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 20211 was published on 23 June 2021. Once enacted later this year, the bill will extend the Irish retail credit licensing regime to any currently unregulated providers of consumer hire-purchase, consumer hire (e.g. PCP car finance) and consumer indirect credit provision, such as the emerging point of sale lending sector. It is important to note that non-consumer activity such as SME hire-purchase and certain forms of trade credit are not in the scope of the bill.