§ Lord Taylor of Warwickasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why no voluntary agreement has been reached between the credit card industry, the Office of Fair Trading and the Department of Trade and Industry on a single method of calculating annual interest percentage rates.[HL5408]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe Government are working closely with the Office of Fair Trading and the Association for Payment Clearing Services, which represents the credit card industry, to agree a set of assumptions that can be used for the calculation of annual percentage rates on credit cards. This will enable consumers to make a better comparison of different credit card offers.
At present card issuers make different assumptions and all parties are agreed that the current situation is unsatisfactory and needs to be resolved. It is the Government's intention to publish draft regulations later this year as part of their White Paper on the reform of the Consumer Credit Act which will provide a single method of calculating an annual percentage rate for a credit card.