The FCA Credit Information Market Study and reporting reforms

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took over regulation of consumer credit in April 2014, and one of the things it has examined since is the market for credit information: the data lenders share about you, the credit reference agencies that hold it, and how fairly the whole system works for the people it affects¹. That work, the Credit Information Market Study, sits alongside the FCA's continuing monitoring of areas including motor finance, guarantor loans and credit information itself².

For someone checking their credit file today, the study matters less as a document and more as the backdrop to changes you can already see. Buy now pay later credit, which was outside FCA regulation when a 2021 Commons briefing described the exemption, became regulated Deferred Payment Credit on 15 July 2026³. TransUnion has replaced its old 0 to 710 score with a 0 to 999 scale and renamed its bands⁵. Rent reporting schemes now let monthly rent payments build a credit history. This page explains what the study covered, what it found, and what each of these changes means when you look at your own file.

What the Credit Information Market Study covers

The FCA became the regulator for consumer credit in April 2014, taking the role over from the Office of Fair Trading, and its market studies since then have shaped how credit is sold and reported in the UK¹. The Credit Information Market Study is one of the areas the FCA keeps under ongoing monitoring, alongside motor finance and guarantor loans². Its subject is the information itself: what lenders send to credit reference agencies, how accurate it is, how it is used to decide who gets credit, and whether consumers understand and can influence what is held about them.

The study's scope connects to a wider body of FCA work on consumer credit. An earlier credit card market study looked at how information is given to borrowers before and after they sign, reviewing pre-contractual information, contractual information and the availability of information on firms' websites⁹. A requirement that applies to all regulated credit agreements is to give pre-contract credit information in a standardised form, the SECCI, together with an adequate explanation focusing on the key costs and risks of the credit¹⁰. The quality of that information, and whether people actually understand it, is a running theme across the FCA's work.

The FCA also gathers the market data that frames these questions. Its consumer credit statistics include lending broken down by type of lender and product, covering credit card lending, overdrafts and other loans, and lending via government student finance schemes¹¹. Research for the Consumer Credit Act reform, conducted between 16 and 25 September 2025, covered credit cards, loans, overdrafts, store cards, high-cost credit loans and hire purchase¹². In September 2025 the FCA also surveyed 38 firms, including insurance, retail banking, payments and consumer finance providers, on how well consumers understand financial information¹³.

When a market study finishes, the FCA's options range from taking no further action, to making new rules or withdrawing existing ones, to firm-specific enforcement, enhanced industry self-regulation or publishing handbook guidance³. That is the mechanism by which study findings turn into the changes described in the rest of this page. For the background to how files work day to day, see the guide to credit scores and credit reports and what is on your credit report.

Credit information and people in vulnerable circumstances

A recurring finding across the FCA's work is that credit information does not work as well for people in difficult circumstances. The FCA's rules on creditworthiness assessment state that a firm should have regard to information it is aware of that may indicate the customer is in, has recently experienced, or is likely to experience financial difficulties, or is vulnerable, for example because of mental health difficulties or mental capacity limitations¹⁴. The same expectation appears in the FCA's redress rules, where the FCA expects lenders to ensure that information about customer vulnerability is kept up to date¹⁵.

How well firms actually identify and flag vulnerable customers varies by sector. The FCA's borrowers in financial difficulty project reported that over 70% of mortgage and credit card firms identify and flag vulnerable customers, compared with 50-60% for most other consumer credit firms¹⁶. That work draws on the FCA's guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers, FG21/1¹⁶. The gap matters to consumers because a lender that does not recognise vulnerability is more likely to make decisions based on incomplete or misleading credit information.

The use of shared data to identify vulnerability extends beyond credit itself. Ofwat's Paying Fair Guidelines expect water companies to put in place and use data sharing arrangements with other bodies, for example credit reference agencies, energy companies, charities or local authorities, to identify people in vulnerable circumstances¹⁷. So the credit file that lenders see is increasingly one node in a wider network of shared data about households.

The Bank of England has also flagged the data itself as a constraint. Its December 2023 Financial Stability Review rated data availability in the private credit market as poor¹⁸. Where the data is poor, decisions made on it, including affordability and creditworthiness assessments, rest on shaky ground, which is one reason the FCA has pressed on data quality and consumer engagement rather than only on lender conduct. If you are struggling, the FCA's information sheets that accompany arrears notices were viewed positively in consumer research for their supportive tone and helpful guidance¹².

Buy now pay later comes under FCA regulation on 15 July 2026

Buy now pay later spent years in a regulatory gap. A Commons briefing from November 2021 noted that an exemption in law meant these payment plans were not treated in the same way as traditional credit agreements and were not regulated by the FCA¹⁹. The Woolard Review, published by the FCA, had already recommended bringing the sector into regulation²⁰. In July 2025 Parliament approved plans to regulate unregulated buy-now-pay-later credit⁶, and a 2025 statutory instrument provides for certain buy-now-pay-later agreements, then exempt, to become regulated credit agreements²¹.

The FCA started regulating Deferred Payment Credit, often known as Buy Now Pay Later, on 15 July 2026⁴. Rules regulating the sector came into force in July 2026⁶, and the FCA has since banned interest charges on credit that customers had already paid off during interest-free loan periods². Research for the Consumer Credit Act reform also noted that Deferred Payment Credit is moving into FCA regulation in 2026¹².

The scale of the change is large: buy now pay later credit was held by around 20% of adults in 2024⁶. For consumers, regulation brings the protections that apply to other credit, including affordability checks, clearer information and access to the Financial Ombudsman Service. How buy now pay later appears on your credit file, and what a missed payment could mean, is covered in the guide to buy now pay later and your credit report.

TransUnion's new 0 to 999 credit score: what changes

TransUnion, one of the three main UK credit reference agencies, has overhauled the score it shows consumers. The range has expanded from 0 to 710 to a maximum of 999⁵. The category names have changed too: 'Poor' and 'Very Poor' have become 'Low' and 'Very Low'⁵. The bottom band has moved with it: what was Very Poor at 0 to 550 is now Very Low at 0 to 487⁵.

Two things are worth being clear about. First, this changes how your score is presented, not the underlying information on your file: your accounts, balances and payment history are what they were. Second, the change is being phased in. TransUnion states the new score rolls out across its credit monitoring partners from late September 2026 until June 2027, and during that window some people may temporarily see two different TransUnion scores depending on which service they use.

If your score looks different from one week to the next, or from one app to another, the rollout is a likely explanation, and there is no need to assume something has changed on your file. The wider question of why scores differ between agencies at all is covered in why your score differs between agencies, and the full ranges at each agency in credit score ranges at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

Rent payments can now build a credit file

For most of the credit reporting system's history, rent has been invisible to it: a tenant who pays every month on time built no credit history, while a borrower with a credit card did. That has been changing through rent reporting services, which record monthly rent payments on a credit file so that a history of paying rent can count towards a credit score. In August 2026, Brickk announced a partnership with TransUnion enabling it to report renters' monthly rent payments directly to TransUnion, with the service live for Brickk members nationwide.

What this means in practice depends on the scheme and the renter. Reporting services typically require the renter to sign up, and sometimes to pay a fee, and the payments then appear on the file that lenders see. Whether it helps depends on what else is on the file: for someone with a thin credit history, a run of on-time rent payments can add positive information; for someone with serious problems such as defaults, it is a small addition to a large negative. The trade-offs, including how rent reporting compares with other ways of building a file, are set out in rent payments and your credit file and rent reporting vs credit builder cards. Landlords and letting agents also run their own checks on tenants, covered in tenant credit checks and your credit file.

Hard or soft search: how lenders check your file

When a lender looks at your credit file, the search it runs is either hard or soft, and the difference matters to your score. Research for the FCA's Consumer Credit Act reform found that consumers have some level of understanding of the difference between a hard and a soft credit check, and that this understanding is more common among participants who are financially struggling; the concept is often familiar as 'check your eligibility before applying'¹².

The practical distinction is this. A soft search gives a lender or an eligibility checker a view of your file without leaving a mark that other lenders treat as an application. A hard search is recorded on your file and is visible to other lenders. Multiple hard searches, particularly within a short period, can lower your credit score²². That is why eligibility checkers that use soft searches have become a common way to test the water before applying, and why making several full applications close together can work against you even if each one is affordable.

The detail, including which products tend to involve which kind of search and how long searches stay on your file, is covered in hard and soft credit searches explained and credit eligibility checkers. Checking your own score is a soft search and does not lower it, a point covered in does checking your own score lower it?.

Your rights when lenders use your credit information

The credit reporting system holds a large amount of personal data about you, and the law gives you rights over it. Under data protection law, an organisation using your personal data must inform you, and the information it must give includes why it is using your data, what type of data it is, how long it will be kept, the recipients and reasons for any transfer, overseas transfer details, your information rights, where the data came from, profiling, how to contact the organisation, and your right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)²³. More broadly, you have a right, by law, to know what personal information is held about you by organisations, and this right is enforced by the Information Commissioner²⁴.

For credit files specifically, the rights are long-standing. By law you can contact any of the credit reference agencies and ask for a copy of the information it holds about your file, free of charge⁸. When an agency discloses your personal data to you, the disclosure must be accompanied by a statement informing you of your rights under section 159 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which concerns the correction of wrong information²⁵. That right to correction is the one to use when something on your file is wrong, and it is exercised with the agency and the lender, not with the regulator.

The system also gives lenders direct responsibility for what they report. Each of the credit reference agencies provides lenders with the facilities to make their own changes to the information you see on your credit file²⁶. When you are in arrears, FCA rules require lenders to treat you fairly and send you regular statements to keep you informed about your current arrears position²⁷. The practical steps for using these rights, including how to raise a dispute and add a notice of correction, are in how to correct wrong information on your credit report and your data rights over your credit file.

Where the FCA cannot help with credit file problems

The FCA writes the rules and supervises the firms, but it is not a repair service for individual credit files, and there are limits worth knowing. The FCA itself states, of the Financial Services Register it publishes, that it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information and does not accept liability for errors or missing information²⁸. So even the register that tells you who is authorised carries that caveat, and checking a firm is a starting point rather than a guarantee.

There are also gaps in which rules apply to which lenders. The FCA's Consumer Credit sourcebook (CONC) does not apply to most of the loans credit unions provide²⁹, so a complaint about a credit union loan may follow a different route from a complaint about a bank loan. On the protection side, credit insurance claims are not eligible for FSCS protection³⁰, which matters if a firm that sold you cover fails. And some official documents have their own limits: the FCA's final report on the retained provisions of the Consumer Credit Act notes that the file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology³¹.

The practical rule is this: for a wrong entry on your file, go to the credit reference agency and the lender; for a lending decision you think was unfair, complain to the lender and then the Financial Ombudsman Service; for misuse of your personal data, the ICO. The FCA's role is to set the standards those bodies must meet. Where a debt has become unenforceable, the rules also differ: in Scotland, a statute barred debt ceases to exist and is no longer recoverable if a relevant claim has not been made and the debt has not been acknowledged during the relevant limitation period, and it is misleading for a firm to suggest court action may be taken for such a debt after the limitation period has expired³².

How to complain about a credit reference or lending decision

Complaints about credit follow a set route, and knowing the order of the steps saves time. The FCA publishes contact details for regulated financial businesses, which is where you find the firm's own complaints process⁷. Consumers may choose to complain to the firm and seek redress from it, and refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if the firm does not satisfy the complaint and it is appropriate to do so³².

The time limits are fixed. For most complaints, a business has up to 8 weeks to consider it⁷. If the firm's final response does not satisfy you, or the 8 weeks pass without one, the Financial Ombudsman Service can take the complaint on. The ombudsman typically asks for replies to its enquiries within two weeks⁷. The service is free to consumers.

A few specific routes are worth knowing:

• Car finance complaints: the FCA publishes a list of lenders with a complaint form in the 'How to complain' column, and a template complaint letter or email you can download and fill in before sending³⁴.
• Northern Ireland: Consumerline can refer your complaint to the Trading Standards Service for investigation or to the FCA, which authorises lenders³⁵.
• Claims companies: if you are unhappy with the conduct of a claims company, you complain to the FCA³⁶.
• Faulty goods bought on credit: if you bought something using credit, you may be able to complain about its quality under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974³⁷.
• Refused account applications: under the Payment Accounts Regulations 2015, when an application is refused, the institution must advise you how to complain and of your right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service³⁸.

The volume of these complaints is high. In the first six months of 2024, banking and consumer credit were the most complained about sectors at the Financial Ombudsman Service, with an increase year on year³⁹. If your complaint is about unaffordable lending, the ombudsman's approach to those complaints is covered in its guidance on unaffordable lending²⁹. For credit file disputes specifically, the steps and deadlines are in how long a dispute takes and notice of correction vs raising a dispute.

Checking a credit firm is authorised

Before borrowing, or if a firm's behaviour worries you, you can check who it is and what it is allowed to do. The FCA regulates financial services in the UK⁴⁰, and one of its responsibilities is ensuring fair practice in consumer credit⁴¹. Its Firm Checker is a tool to help consumers check whether financial services firms are authorised and have permission to sell products and services²⁸.

The check itself is quick. Using the FCA's Firm Checker or the Financial Services Register, search the firm by name, select 'Borrowing money, including credit card lending and credit information', and check that the firm is 'Authorised' and has permission to 'Lend you money on an unsecured basis'⁴. You can also use the online FCA register or telephone the FCA consumer helpline⁴⁰. If you want to check whether a firm is legitimate or report a possible scam, the FCA is the contact for that too⁴¹.

If a firm is not authorised, or you suspect a scam, do not hand over personal details or money, and report it to the FCA. If you have already borrowed from an unauthorised lender, the ombudsman may still be able to look at some complaints, and free debt advice is available through the routes set out in the guide to debt. For the wider picture of who regulates what, see financial regulation in the UK and consumer protection in UK financial services.