Observations from the FCA’s webinar: One year on
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) live streamed an event on Wednesday 31 July, focusing on the impact of the Consumer Duty in its first year.
Consumer Duty
The FCA’s Consumer Duty sets a higher standard of care that firms should provide to consumers in retail financial markets. The rules came into force on 31 July 2023 for new and existing products and services. The next key milestone is 31 July 2024 for closed products. The Duty is expected to have far-reaching implications across financial services, with the FCA set to supervise against it. For some firms, it will continue to require a significant shift in culture and behaviours to meet the new, higher standard of conduct.
The overriding requirement in the Consumer Duty is that firms must act to deliver good outcomes for their customers, including those with characteristics of vulnerability. The Duty defines the standards of conduct that firms must follow to deliver good outcomes for their customers – firms must act in good faith towards customers, avoid causing foreseeable harm and enable and support their customers to pursue their financial objectives.
The firm’s board is responsible for assessing compliance with the Duty. Firms need to monitor and regularly review customer outcomes and act where they identify risks to compliance with the Duty. The rules and guidance identify ‘four outcomes’ which serve as the key measure for gauging whether firms are delivering good outcomes. These are concerned with whether the firm’s:
- Products and services are designed to meet customers’ needs and are appropriately targeted.
- Customers are receiving value for money.
- Communication supports and enables understanding and informed decision-making.
- Standard of support meets the needs of customers over the product lifecycle.
The Consumer Duty reflects a clear shift in the FCA’s regulatory approach from rules-based compliance to an outcomes-focused approach. The onus is on firms to monitor, assess, understand and evidence how they are acting to deliver good outcomes. Firms need to collect a broad range of data and information to give them the insights they need and produce management information to support compliance with the Duty. This aligns with the FCA’s own transformation to become more data-led, allowing for more timely market interventions.
How we can help
We have a dedicated team of conduct specialists to help firms to comply with the Consumer Duty. The team has extensive experience of helping firms to improve conduct, performing outcome assessments and giving independent assurance to Boards and Senior Managers.
We provide an independent viewpoint, review and make recommendations to build trust and confidence among key stakeholders so that a firm’s approach is geared to delivering good outcomes for customers. We can support in a number of areas including:
- Strategy and culture (culture assessments, business model alignment).
- Product governance (appropriateness of products and sales and marketing strategies, defined target markets, after sales monitoring and support).
- Fair value assessments (balanced judgements of value offered by products and services).
- Vulnerable customers (identification and continual monitoring).
- Outcomes testing (back book review, remediation and structured programmes).
- Training (Board, Senior Managers, and customer-facing teams).
- Data and MI (evidencing outcomes, Board packs, demonstrating and evidencing compliance to FCA).
Get in touch
If you would like to speak with a member of our Financial Services team, please contact us or to submit Request for Proposal documents, use the link below.
Outcomes monitoring multi-firm review
The FCA recently published a multi-firm review of outcomes monitoring under the Consumer Duty. While the review was carried out across 20 firms in the insurance sector, the findings are relevant across all sectors.
Suspension of GAP sales & fair value
The agreement to pause sales of Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) insurance for 80% of the market was a big headline in February. It may have come as a shock to some but the FCA’s concerns with GAP insurance are nothing new, dating back to its 2014 Market Study. The FCA pointed to its 2022 value measures data and had given GAP firms a stark warning in September 2023 over fair value.
How can retailers incorporate Consumer Duty
The FCA’s Consumer Duty rules came into effect on 31 July 2023. Firms seeking FCA authorisation will need to demonstrate compliance with the Consumer Duty in their applications. This may be a challenging requirement for firms, including retailers, that are new to financial services or launching new products or services.
Consumer Duty – Five points to consider
With the Consumer Duty coming into force in less than a month, we are likely to hear a lot more from the regulator. Most firms are focused on completing their implementation actions to demonstrate compliance. It’s easy to focus on the principles, outcomes and supporting rules and lose sight of the wider purpose of the Duty, which is all-encompassing and will touch on most parts of your business. Have...
Consumer Duty – Handbook changes
In response to the publication of the Consumer Duty rules (PS22/9) [1], the FCA identified several areas requiring further clarification. As a result, the FCA recently published a follow-up Consultation Paper (CP22/26) [2] that proposed several Handbook changes. Feedback on the Consultation is due by 9 January 2023.
Consumer Duty – further clarification
In response to inquiries, the FCA updated its Consumer Duty webpage in December 2022 to provide additional information on the implementation of the Duty.
Consumer Duty – Steps to success
With the deadline for implementing the FCA’s Consumer Duty almost upon us, there are certain steps your firm and Board need to consider to ensure successful adoption of the Duty. We have devised some videos to help you achieve this, and to for continued success once the steps are fully implemented in your organisation.
Consumer Duty: General Insurance Pricing Practices
There are some key areas of change and challenge for insurance firms under the Consumer Duty, despite the potential advantage compared with other sectors due to the existing requirements. For firms who have already complied with the GIPP rules set out in PROD the ‘price and value’ and ‘products and services’ outcomes rules under the Duty will not apply. This was a major change from the consultation...
Consumer Duty: Board implementation plans
With less than a week to go until the first Consumer Duty milestone, firms and in particular Boards, must now focus on agreeing an implementation plan by 31 October 2022.
Claims handling & business interruption insurance
The New Consumer Duty requires firms to support their customers throughout the entire lifecycle of a product, including the claims handling process. Claims handling is a key part of the consumer experience and firms should ensure that customers are treated fairly throughout the claims process.
Financial Services - Consumer Duty webinar
This October 2022 webinar was a highly practical session relevant for all financial services firms. We used case studies to illustrate the range and depth of the impact of the Consumer Duty on financial services firms, and cover the approaches, frameworks and architecture which firms might wish to implement before the start of the Duty.
FCA Consultation Paper CP21/36
On 7 December the FCA released CP21/36 - the highly anticipated second consultation which provides more detail on the FCA’s proposals for new standards of consumer protection and care in retail financial markets in the form of a ‘Consumer Duty’.
CP21/13 – A new Consumer Duty
In May 2021 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation paper CP21/13 outlining proposed new standards of consumer protection and care in retail financial markets in the form of a ‘Consumer Duty’.
Key contacts
David Blunt Senior Advisor - London
Sarah Ouarbya Partner - Risk and Regulatory Consulting - London
