The FCA has shared 10 questions for businesses to consider ahead of new consumer obligations that take effect July 31.
The FCA’s new consumer obligations will begin July 31 and will require all regulated businesses to ensure that customers are treated fairly at every stage of the “customer journey.”
The mandate represents a significant change to the FCA’s expectations, with the regulator saying a recent survey of firms found the vast majority of firms expected to meet the mandate by the deadline.
With a month to go before the deadline, regulators have highlighted 10 key questions for businesses to consider.
- Are you satisfied that your products and services are well designed to meet the needs of consumers in your target market and perform as expected? What tests have been performed?
- Does your product or service have features that could harm customer groups with vulnerable characteristics? If so, what changes have you made to the design of your product or service? ?
- What actions have you taken as a result of your fair value assessment, and how do you ensure that this action is effective in improving consumer outcomes?
- What data, MI, and other intelligence do you use to continuously monitor the fair value of your products and services?
- How are you testing the effectiveness of your communications? How are you dealing with these results?
- How do you tailor your communications to meet the needs of customers with vulnerable characteristics, and how do you determine that these adjustments are effective?
- What is your assessment of whether your customer support meets the needs of customers with vulnerable characteristics? What data, MI, and customer feedback are used to support this assessment? is it being done?
- How satisfied were you that the quality and availability of post-sales support was as good as pre-sales support?
- Do employees across your company (including those in administrative and support functions) understand their roles and responsibilities in the performance of their duties?
- Have you identified key risks to your ability to deliver positive customer outcomes and implement appropriate mitigation measures?
Regulators said the questions should help businesses reflect on their consumer obligation implementation and identify gaps and areas for improvement.
Last month, the FCA warned regulated companies that flout consumer obligation deadlines to expect “quick action.”
Sheldon Mills, FCA’s executive director of consumer and competition, warned in a speech at financial consultancy EY that companies that ignore their obligations and those that do the most harm can be expected to act “quickly and aggressively.” .