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Hidden Credit Liabilities: Role of the FCA

14 April 2026

Lead MP

John Martin McDonnell
Hayes and Harlington
Lab

Responding Minister

Lucy Rigby

Tags

NHSEconomyTaxationNorthern IrelandForeign AffairsBusiness & Trade
Word Count: 12677
Other Contributors: 8

At a Glance

John Martin McDonnell raised concerns about hidden credit liabilities: role of the fca in Westminster Hall. A government minister responded.

Key Requests to Government:

I am calling for an independent inquiry into hidden credit liabilities and the role of the FCA, which must be judge-led, fully resourced, and granted statutory provision under the Inquiries Act 2005. This is necessary to address structural flaws in the system and unresolved injustices. I ask for transparency by default, no more discretionary commissions hidden in motor finance small print, SME equality with retail consumer protections, and regional sensitivity from the FCA recognising Northern Ireland's higher vulnerability rates. The Minister is urged to re-examine the Evans case and ensure fair compensation through a redress scheme as promised by Parliament in 2014.

How the Debate Unfolded

MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:

Lead Contributor

Hayes and Harlington
Opened the debate
The genesis of this debate stems from a scandal involving hidden credit lines, which have caused severe harm to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals. The use of derivatives such as interest rate swaps in loans has led to undisclosed risks being transferred onto customers, weakening their credit standing and pushing businesses into insolvency or administration. This practice was motivated by up-front revenues for banks but became a mechanism for destroying viable businesses during the financial crisis, resulting in devastating consequences including suicides and early deaths. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has repeatedly failed to act on evidence presented regarding this issue, leading to a loss of trust among SMEs and the public. I am concerned about hidden credit liabilities in Northern Ireland, where 20% of adults are over-indebted, the highest proportion in the UK. The Ulster Bank scandal and complex credit lines have left many families and businesses struggling with secret commissions and break costs they never agreed to or understood. Over 50 bank branches closed in three years, pushing vulnerable people towards unregulated lending. The Evans family have suffered due to banking malpractice. Springdew Ltd was put into a structured collar by Barclays Capital with hidden margins that damaged the company's credit standing, leading to additional fees, manipulated interest rates, false reporting, and refusal of additional lending. This caused the company's collapse, resulting in personal health issues for Don Evans and his wife, including hospitalisation and cancer diagnosis.

Government Response

Lucy Rigby
Government Response
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) for securing this debate and for further airing these issues. As he mentioned, there has been a long history of parliamentary interest in these issues, over at least 14 years. That is for good reason, for not only are we deeply committed to justice and do we abhor injustice in this country, but SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy. The events of the IHRP scandal were completely wrong and abhorrent. From a personal point of view, I cannot deny how hard it is to hear and read about horrific personal circumstances, not least those of the Glanville family, referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan); the Evans family, referred to by the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone); and the Lilley family, referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald). As my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington referred to, in some instances there are hideous personal tragedies. To that end, I thank and acknowledge my hon. Friends the Members for Poole, for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous), for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne), and for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, and the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick)—the latter knows I struggle sometimes to pronounce the name of his constituency; I hope he thinks I had a decent go—and the spokespeople from other parties for their contributions to the debate. Not least because of the correspondence I have had and what we have heard today, I recognise that some businesses remain deeply dissatisfied with the operation of the original redress scheme and that its conclusions continue to be strongly contested. Although there have been a number of reviews and pieces of litigation, as I will come to later, the main redress scheme for IRHP resulted in over £2 billion paid in total to thousands of affected businesses. It was undeniably unsatisfactory that the overall response to these issues has been piecemeal and complex, and the process was very often slow and frustrating to deal with. However, I am told that the IRHP redress scheme was conceived as a means of providing redress within the legal and regulatory constraints of the time. Clearly, I was not part of the Treasury in 2012, nor were Labour in government—the party of the shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier), were in government for the last 14 years—so I want to set out the current Government's understanding of the framework within which decisions about the redress scheme were taken at the time. The constraints, in so far as they concern regulatory oversight, reflect the constitutional settlement that underpins the UK's regulatory system. I acknowledge the argument that the Government should act independently of the regulator and the regulatory system and look again at this issue with fresh eyes using their own statutory powers. Given the many reviews of these issues, the independent and broad-based redress schemes over more than a decade, the successful prosecutions, convictions, judicial reviews, and other investigations, the question that the current Government must ask is whether steps to reopen these issues now will lead to better or different outcomes, and, importantly, more redress for those affected. The affected. There are questions as to whether this Government would have made the same decisions if confronted with the same problems as the previous one—and if our decisions would have been different or indeed more or less effective. Without prejudice to the gaze of the shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, I am sure that most of us would like to think not only that might we have dealt with the situation rather better, but that in a best-case scenario regulation and supervision would have been designed such that none of these issues would have arisen in the first place. That goes right to the root of why we are all here today, and indeed critical regulatory changes were made following this scandal. Sever scandal. Several hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Strangford, a consistent champion of his constituents whose specific points I will come to shortly, and my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris), who articulated Catherine and Nigel's heartbreaking story very well, have spoken about hidden credit lines or contingent obligations. Those are clearly very serious allegations, and it is right that they are treated seriously. I referred to a different regulatory environment from that existing now. I will briefly explain why our regulatory landscape is now better. Since 2019, the vast majority of SMEs, around 99%, have been able to bring complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service. That was a direct response to the gaps exposed by earlier scandals, including those we have talked about today. I want to be clear that the Government are instead focused on ensuring that the regulatory landscape is fit for purpose and on supporting SMEs to grow with confidence, improving their access to finance and ensuring that the financial services sector operates to high standards that command trust. We are backing that commitment with real action, with record support for the British Business Bank and reforms that strengthen accountability without undermining growth. We are committed to robust regulation to international high standards, so that we have a strong financial services sector.
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About Westminster Hall Debates

Westminster Hall debates are a chance for MPs to raise important issues affecting their constituents and get a response from a government minister. Unlike Prime Minister's Questions, these debates are more in-depth and collaborative. The MP who secured the debate speaks first, other MPs can contribute, and a minister responds with the government's position.