The Consumer Credit (Exempt Agreements) (Amendment) Order 1998

• Citation: S.I. 1998/1944
• Sections: 3

Section 1

This Order may be cited as the Consumer Credit (Exempt Agreements) (Amendment) Order 1998 and shall come into force on 1st September 1998.

Section 2

Subject to article 3 below, the Consumer Credit (Exempt Agreements) Order 1989 is hereby amended by the substitution, for article 4, of the following article:–

Exemption of certain consumer credit agreements by reference to the rate of the total charge for credit.

(3)

(1) The Act shall not regulate a debtor-creditor agreement–

(a) which is an agreement of a type offered to a certain class or classes of persons and not offered to the public generally; and

(b) under the terms of which the only charge included in the total charge for credit is interest which cannot at any time exceed the sum of one per cent and the highest of the base rates named in paragraph (2) below, being the latest rates in operation on the date 28 days before any such time.

(2) The banks referred to in paragraph (1) above are–

Bank of England

Bank of Scotland

Barclays Bank PLC

Clydesdale Bank PLC

Co-operative Bank Public Limited Company

Coutts & Co

Lloyds Bank PLC

Midland Bank Public Limited Company

National Westminster Bank Public Limited Company

the Royal Bank of Scotland p.l.c.

TSB Bank Plc.

(3) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1)(b) above, “interest” means interest at a rate determined in accordance with the formula set out in paragraph (1) of regulation 7 of the Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980 , and in that formula as applied by that sub-paragraph “period rate of charge” has the meaning assigned to it in paragraph (2) of that regulation.

Section 3

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 shall not regulate a consumer credit agreement which is an agreement of any of the descriptions of agreement specified in article 4 of the Consumer Credit (Exempt Agreements) Order 1989 as that article was before the substitution of the article set out in article 2 of this Order, provided that agreement is made on or before 31st July 1999.