PIMFA
As of 31 July 2023, the new Consumer Duty rules for new and existing products and services come into force. In this video, PIMFA’s Director of Government Relations and Policy, David Ostojitsch, emphasises the importance of maintaining momentum to embed best practices and a culture of delivering good consumer outcomes.
WHAT IS CONSUMER DUTY?
The Duty is intended to ensure a higher standard of care across financial services for retail customers and to deliver good consumer outcomes throughout the life cycle of products and services.
- Why is consumer duty important?
This is a significant regulatory change with a need for a shift in culture and mindset to focus on delivering good outcomes for retail customers. The Duty is subjective and requires a holistic approach: firms will need to consider application of the duty in line with the size and type of firm and the firm role within the distribution chain.
- Background
The Consumer Duty is fundamental to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) 2022 business plan and April 2022-25 strategy.
The objective of the Consumer Duty is to stop consumer harms and ensure a more consistent standard of consumer protection for financial services users. This aligns with FCA business priorities 2021 – 2022 focused on consumer outcomes.
There is parliamentary and political appetite to address consumer harms (for example, as defined in the consultation, finding it harder to switch or get a better deal), particularly given the increase in vulnerable consumers because of the pandemic (as shown by responses to the (FCA) Financial Lives Survey 2020).
- Aim
The aim of the duty is to create a higher level of consumer protection in retail financial services. There is an expectation of greater supervision driven by the FCA’s new data-led and outcomes-based approach. Currently firms are bound by FCA rules and Principles for business, which include treating customers fairly, and ensuring products and services information is clear, fair and not misleading (Principles 6 and 7).
- ELEMENTS OF DUTY
The purpose of the duty is to deliver better outcomes for consumers across the whole consumer journey and aims to set a higher standard of care and expectation than the existing set of principles and rules with a package of measures:
- Consumer Principle 12 stating a firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.
- Cross cutting rules stating that firms must:
- Act in good faith toward retail customers
- Avoid causing foreseeable harm to retail customers
- Enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives
Joint Trade Association Consumer Duty Distributor Feedback Framework Guidance
In late July, the joint trade associations issued a preliminary Distributor Feedback Framework, setting out an agreed approach to distributor-to-manufacturer information-sharing for Consumer Duty purposes.
Now we are finalising the Framework which now includes both an EMT-style standardised reporting template and guidance on how that template should be completed.
Read the Joint Trade Association Consumer Duty Distributor Feedback Framework Guidance
read our paper on consumer duty
read our CEO ROUNDTABLE REPORT ON CONSUMER DUTY
Information-sharing under the Consumer Duty
Taking a proportionate approach to distributor-to-manufacturer feedback
In the same way as the Consumer Duty requires manufacturers to provide information to distributors about their products, it also requires distributors to provide information to assist manufacturers in their product review processes.
The FCA’s FG22/5 makes this very clear, stating:
“6.69 The requirement to provide information to support manufacturer reviews applies to all distributor firms in the distribution chain. We expect all firms in a distribution chain to co-operate.”
In developing a co-ordinated industry approach to distributor-to-manufacturer feedback, the joint trade association group has been mindful that all data points requested should have an actionable purpose and that the gathering, reporting and processing of information should be proportionate. Our document includes an overview of the data sought, the rationale for identified data items (quantitative and qualitative) and mechanisms for delivery.
Also inside this document is:
• Annex 1 which provides the agreed Data Reporting Template.
• Annex 2 which provides regulatory references relevant to distributor-to-manufacturer data flows.
Read the Distributor Feedback Guidance Note 28 July 2023 now
