Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what evidence he has received on the potential of the voluntary agreement by lenders to effectively ensure that customers’ credit limits are not increased without their permission.

Treasury ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

The regulation of consumer credit is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA has carried out an extensive credit card market study that identified concerns about persistent credit card debt. The FCA’s proposed measures to tackle persistent debt include an industry agreement to restrict unsolicited credit limit increases.