Is the finance industry is compliant with FCA cycle to work regulations?

With new cycle to work regulations coming into play, it’s a good time for companies, especially those in the finance industry, to check that their schemes are FCA compliant.

For traditional cycle to work schemes where the employer owns the bike and there is a £1,000 spending cap, an FCA exemption exists which removes the requirement for the employer to have a Consumer Hire License. So far, so good. However, what many financial institutions fail to realise is that if your organisation has other FCA permissions already in place, the exemption from the consumer hire license is removed. A consumer hire license is required. This means many companies may be unknowingly breaking FCA rules.

Companies inadvertently breaking the rules must take action by either adding Consumer Hire added to their list of FCA permissions, which can take time, or use Green Commute Initiative’s cycle to work scheme with no £1,000 limit. With GCI’s scheme, it is GCI who owns and hires the bike to the employee rather than the employer. GCI can do this as it is FCA authorised for consumer hire, hence why there’s no £1,000 limit with the scheme.

Rob Howes, Director of Green Commute Initiative said, “It’s vital that financial institutions check that their schemes are compliant.  No one wants to fall foul of the FCA rules. Any company worried about their compliance can quickly and easily switch to Green Commute Initiative. We are the industry-leading scheme and our model was recently added the new DfT guidance on cycle to work schemes. You can rest assured the GCI scheme is HMRC and FCA compliant.’