IVA Regulation

IVA’s and IVA providers are regulated in a number of different ways. The regulation, in its totality, is intended to ensure that the public receive honest information about IVA’s, that their cases are managed professionally, that all parties are treated fairly, and that the law of insolvency is observed.

IVA providers, and anyone that provides IVA advice, must be covered by a consumer credit licence. These licences are issued by the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT issues “Debt Management Guidance”. This guidance covers the advertising, communications and operations that debt advisers and IVA companies are involved in. The aim is to ensure that the public receive honest, competent and transparent services from companies in this sector. A failure to comply with these standards could result in a consumer credit licence being revoked. Where this is the case the company would no longer be able to trade.

Insolvency Practitioners are the highly trained professionals that head IVA operations. When they agree to act for someone looking to start an IVA they take the case as a personal appointment. This means that it is them individually, rather than their employer, who is responsible to their professional body for running the case in a proper and compliant manner.

Each Insolvency Practitioner must be a member of an approved professional body which also acts as their regulatory body. The regulatory body will make inspection visits to ensure that proper standards are being maintained. There are eight such professional bodies including the Insolvency Practitioners Association and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Many Insolvency Practitioners and their IVA companies have also chosen to join trade associations that impose further requirements upon their members. The two primary trade associations are the Debt Resolution Forum and DEMSA.

IVA companies are also subject to the requirements of The Information Commissioner in terms of Data Protection.

Should anyone wish to make a complaint about the way that their IVA company has handled their case they should:

• Write to their Insolvency Practitioner, personally, setting out their grounds for complaint and setting a reasonable deadline for a response to be received.
  

• If the response from the Insolvency Practitioner is inadequate, unsatisfactory or is not received, the complaint should be directed to the regulatory/professional body of which the Insolvency Practitioner is a member.
  

• Where Insolvency Practitioners are also members of trade associations such as the DRF or DEMSA there may be further compliant avenues via the trade association itself.

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