The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) first announced new supportive measures in early April but a brief consultation period followed which delayed the official launch. On April 9, the regulator confirmed that the package of temporary measures will be completely integrated from tomorrow (Tuesday April 14).

The new rules were enforced from April 9 but the FCA detailed that the “full range” of measures would not apply until April 14.

They delayed the full rollout to allow firms to ensure that they had the resources in place to handle customer requests.

As they explained, all affected firms would be ready to receive customer requests by April 14 but some firms, including major banks and building societies, would be able to make adjustments before this.

So, consumers who have not yet seen evidence for these changes in their financial service providers are advised by the FCA to check the companies’ websites as we pass the deadline.

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The changes themselves are fairly wide ranging in their scope but will largely affect consumers' credit cards and/or overdrafts.

The FCA detailed that the following measures will be enforced:

• offer a temporary payment freeze on loans and credit cards for up to three months, for consumers negatively impacted by coronavirus
• allow customers who are negatively impacted by coronavirus and who already have an arranged overdraft on their main personal current account, up to £500 charged at zero interest for three months
• make sure that all overdraft customers are no worse off on price when compared to the prices they were charged before the recent overdraft pricing changes came into force
• ensure consumers using any of these temporary payment freeze measures will not have their credit file affected.