To ask the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment what support her Department will offer to credit unions during their transfer to Financial Services Authority regulation.

DETI officials, together with staff from the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) have provided a programme of support to all NI credit unions (NICU) in the period leading up to transfer of regulatory arrangements to FSA in March 2012.

This has included two separate series of road shows held in locations across Northern Ireland; one in September/October 2011 was designed to inform the consultation process, while the most recent was aimed at providing NICUs with a fuller understanding of how the new regulatory arrangements will work in practice. These, with considerable contribution from, and participation of, DETI officials, were delivered by FSA / FSCS representatives and provided valuable opportunities for discussion and for useful contacts to be made between individual NICUs and FSA / FSCS staff. The road-shows, which concluded on 2 February 2012, were well attended by NICU representatives. FSA has also included a special Northern Ireland ‘help section’ on its website specifically for the assistance of NICUs.

FSA has indicated that it will maintain its support to NICUs for as long as required.