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The Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) Standing Committee has published an updated version of its current IVA protocol, due to be implemented from 21 July 2021 onwards.
The changes will provide updated regulatory standards for insolvency practitioners, creditors, and the debt advice sector to follow.
The body, which is chaired by the Insolvency Service, last updated the protocol in 2016, and has now recognised that the debt landscape has “undergone significant changes” since then.
In turn, insolvency practitioners have been provided with a warning of the updates so they can both change their systems and procedures accordingly, and retrain staff members in advance.
Angela Crossly, director for strategy policy and analysis at the Insolvency Service, said: “We are aware that a large number of IVAs are drafted using the protocol and many of our stakeholders have asked for updated guidance.
“The IVA standing committee has improved on the 2016 protocol and we hope the updated version provides improved guidance, advice and standards to strengthen an important debt solution for people in financial difficulty.”
Meg van Rooyen, policy lead at the Money Advice Trust, said that the update should make IVAs “simpler and more straightforward to follow”.
She added that important implementations, such as the addition of “the FCA vulnerability guidance as a benchmark and changes to the equity rules”, are steps in the right direction in enabling individuals to keep their homes.
