Board of Trade: Committee on Consumer Credit: Files

BT 250

1967-1973

Papers of the Committee, under the Chairmanship of Lord Crowther, appointed to review the law and practice relating to consumer credit.

Of the general registered files in the series, many contain submissions to the Committee which were not considered as formal evidence.

Files in this series are of the G2 series which was used by the General Division. When this Division became the General and Industrial Division, the file series used was G1. IC files in this series are of the Insurance and Companies Division, which had overlapping areas of responsibility in certain fields of consumer credit with the General Division and its successor divisions.

The pieces containing evidence submitted to the Committee are arranged in alphabetical order and grouped under the headings used in the final report.

Public Record(s)

English

143 file(s)

Open

From 1984 Department of Trade and Industry

Topics

Trade and commerce

The creation of the Committee on Consumer Credit was announced in the House of Commons in July 1968 by the President of the Board of Trade. The Committee members were appointed the following September, and the Committee first met that same month. The Chairman was Lord Crowther.

This was the first major review of the whole field of consumer credit and was in response to concern about the high cost of some forms of consumer credit, the effect this had on interest rates, and the need for a review of moneylenders and protection of depositors legislation.

The Committee's terms of reference were to enquire into the present law and practice governing the provision of credit to individuals for financing purchases of goods and services for personal consumption; to consider the advantages and disadvantages of existing and possible alternative arrangements for providing such credit, having regard to the interests of consumers, traders and suppliers of credit including depositors; to consider in particular whether any amendment of the Moneylenders Acts was desirable; and to make recommendations.

These terms of reference were published as a press notice in October 1968, which invited representations from those wishing to submit evidence. In addition the Committee commissioned, through the Board of Trade, surveys into past and present borrowing patterns of consumers, pawnbroking, moneylending and bills of sale.

The Committee's final report was published in March 1971, and the Committee was formally wound up that same month.