Park Group calls for regulation
Boots and Asda are the latest retailers to come to the rescue of Farepak customers, who lost an estimated£40 million when the Christmas savings club collapsed last month.

Supermarket chain Asda has pledged£100,000 towards the Farepak Fund, established with help from UK charity Family Fund, in response to calls in the House of Commons from Minister for Consumer Affairs Ian McCartney. Boots has also contributed£150,000.

Park Group, the UK's largest savings club, is pushing for new laws to regulate the sector following the collapse of Farepak. Park Group chairman and majority shareholder Peter Johnson believes that regulation is the only way to restore consumer confidence.

Johnson said: 'Any sort of regulation takes time and money to monitor, but we have no problem with that. We would not be upset by it.'

Park Group has also donated£1 million in high street shopping vouchers to the Farepak Fund.

Savings clubs and hamper companies are not regulated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) or Financial Services Authority, because technically savers receive a product - hampers or vouchers - in exchange for money paid into the club.

The OFT is now examining how the industry can be regulated to prevent any future repeat of the Farepak fiasco.

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