CMCs should be ruled by the FCA, says MP

Claims management companies (CMCs) should be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), according to All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance and Financial Services chair Jonathan Evans (pictured).

Speaking in a government CMC debate at Westminster Hall last week, Evans said that the Ministry of Justice should hand over CMC regulation to the tougher FCA, which will come into force next year.

He said: “I will only say that if we are looking for effective regulation, I have much more faith in the FCA, which is being set up under Martin Wheatley. That would send a certain message, if I may use that expression, to the industry.”

Evans also called for a CMC compensation scheme to be set up to pay for claims made against bust compensation firms.

In the same debate, Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price doubted the ministry’s ability to regulate the CMC sector well.

She said: “Hitherto, the ministry has done a reasonably good job, although I qualify that by saying that the industry has grown more quickly than the regulatory team can reasonably manage. I am not arguing for a bigger regulator, but for tighter rules and for the regulator to have the tools to do the job expected of it.”