Judge & Priestley announces FCA authorisation

Judge and Priestley LLP (J&P), the South East London based solicitors practice, is delighted to announce that it has recently gained Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation.

This comes in addition to its traditional authorisation and regulation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The move to seek FCA authorisation came in response to increasing client demands for J&P Credit Solutions (J&P CS), the debt recovery division of J&P, to offer bulk pre-legal collections of regulated debt. Holding joint accreditation with both professional bodies is a relatively unique position, but reflects the practices commitment to offer the highest levels of technical and operational expertise across the full spectrum of pre-legal and legal debt recovery activities.

Director of Collections, Mark Bailey said “We are delighted to have gained FCA authorisation. It is a testament to the quality of our existing staff, policies and procedures and our focus on continual improvement. The recent expansion of our pre- legal collections team, driven by new client acquisitions across a number of sectors, increased our exposure to regulated debt collections, making the decision to seek FCA authorisation a simple one.

As a business we believe that being FCA authorised will allow us to further open up new client opportunities and sends a powerful message to the market that J&P CS are approaching pre-legal collections with the same level of commitment to expertise and best practice, as has long been the case for its legal debt recovery and insurance activities.

By holding both FCA and SRA authorisation, our existing and potential clients can rest assured that both our pre-legal and legal activities are authorised by the most relevant industry regulator, underwriting our claim to be the complete one stop shop for meeting the pre–legal and legal debt recovery needs of any business, large or small”.