new selling tool

Has anyone considered complaining to the FCA? I was thinking about it after reading the guidance they published (FG18 / 7: Fairness of variation terms in financial services consumer contracts under the Consumer Rights Act 2015) as I feel that there are quite a few places where the guidance suggests the change in terms and conditions could be considered unfair. In particular the table on pages 12/13 mentions things like:
- whether the customer could have foreseen the change in terms when they entered the contract
- whether the right to exit can be exercised in practice
- balancing the interests of different groups of customers (I think this change goes too far in favour of buyers at the expense of those selling)

I didn’t give much or any thought to complaining to the FCA or FO because as annoying as it is to have queued for best the part of 5 months (14/7) pointlessly, I personally don’t see that there is a case that would make the complaint-upheld-grade.

whether the customer could have foreseen the change in terms when they entered the contract

The underlying products are 5-year term loans so it was obvious to me that liquidity wasn’t guaranteed. In which case it’d be hold for term or try to sell at a discount. It’s still possible to hold to term and the transfer payment is a 1.25% discount so not exactly unpredictable or surprising and certainly not a bolt from the blue. Unless one doesn’t have a clue about the working of P2P loans.

whether the right to exit can be exercised in practice

There was no right to exit instantly with the previous system. It was dependent on supply being much smaller than demand. An exit is likely to be faster with the new tool than what had happened with the drop in confidence, drop in liquidity and ever increasing queues-cum-standstill.

balancing the interests of different groups of customers (I think this change goes too far in favour of buyers at the expense of those selling)

I don’t think 1.25% is too far in favour of buyers. The lesser cohorts are of the order of
1.25% off the return that might be expected. Seems a reasonably small discount to facilitate a faster exit than seeing the loans through to term. I think the balance is about right. Anyone who thinks it massively favours buyers should put their money where their mouth is and deposit money on FC and hoover up these “great second hand heavily discounted loan parts”. 

I’m not sure complainer-lenders have any understanding of what they expect to “win” with these complaints. If, and I personally think it might be a biggish if, the FO rules against FC what do lenders expect? I’d imagine FC would be forced to drop the new selling tool and go back to a log-jam standstill that’s worst than the previous one after the resulting bad PR a detrimental FO ruling would have.

The selling tool is yet to be optimised. It won't cancel the sale process when there is no more live loan for sale.