Our response to the Insolvency Service call for evidence on Regulation of Insolvency Practitioners and review of the current regulatory landscape
We welcome the Insolvency Service reviewing the way that regulation of Insolvency Practitioners (IP) works.
We are particularly concerned with the market for individual voluntary agreements (IVA), an important debt solution that people can only enter through the services of an IP.
A recent review by the Insolvency Service raised a number of concerns with the way that regulation of the IVA market is working, in particular with regulation of ‘volume’ IVA providers.
This is worrying as IVAs are a fairly high-risk product being taken out by people who are financially vulnerable.
Therefore we call on the Insolvency Service to update IP regulation by introducing a specific regulatory regime for IVAs and volume IVA producers in particular. We think it is vital that both IPs and the firm providing IVAs are regulated properly, as currently IVA providing firms may not be covered by regulation.
We also call on the Insolvency Service to consider the design of the IVA itself, to better meet the needs and circumstances of people who need help form an IVA.
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