Consumer Duty Hub
The introduction of Consumer Duty is the latest part of the FCA’s plan to protect consumers in the financial services world. The FCA's Consumer Duty page can be found here.
Consumer Duty works on the principle that a firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers and firms must be able to demonstrate that they are acting in the best interests of their customers.
Our Consumer Duty hub page provides an overview of what it is and what we are doing to demonstrate and evidence how the Consumer Duty is crucial to our business.
The Four Outcomes
The four outcomes set out the rules and provides guidance as to what is expected of us in our relationship with the customer; these are:
Customer Understanding:
Ensure that we provide clear information at the right time so our customers can make informed decisions throughout their journey with us.
Price and Value:
Ensure that the costs and charges paid by our customers are fair and reasonable for the product and the service that they receive from us. We have undertaken a "fair value assessment" which supports our position.
Products and Services:
Ensure that the our products are designed to meet the needs of the customers within our target market, throughout their journey with us.
Customer Support:
Ensure we are providing support, information and assistance to all our customers, including those who may be classed as vulnerable, wherever they are on their journey with us.
The Cross-Cutting Rules
In support of the overriding principle behind Consumer Duty of ensuring firms are putting their customers first is the introduction of three key behaviours:
- Firms must act in good faith towards customers
- Firms must avoid causing foreseeable harm to customers
- Firms must enable their customers to pursue their financial objectives
We have created a series of documents to accompany our undertakings on the Consumer Duty and these can be found below.
The Consumer Duty is not a "one time" box ticking exercise, it is our commitment to our customers that we will strive to continually drive our standards and services upwards to ensure the very best outcomes for them.
Our Consumer Duty page will continue to evolve and move forward as we prepare for 31st July 2023 which is the implementation deadline for the Duty so please check back over the coming weeks.