Living with the Consumer Duty

Financial services firms are now working with strengthened requirements that they deliver good outcomes for their customers - what some might call 'TCF on steroids' (Treating Customers Fairly). Emma Radmore and Lucy Hadrill revisit what firms should have done in the run-up to implementation and forecast the FCA's expectations moving forwards.

Emma Radmore(legal director) is a member of Womble Bond Dickinson's financial services regulation team in London, where Lucy Hadrill is an associate. Contact them onemma.radmore@wbd-uk.com and lucy.hadrill@wbd-uk.com.

Finally, 31 July 2023 arrived and the Financial Conduct Authority's Consumer Duty rules for current products and services took effect. The Consumer Duty has been a long time in the making, and expectations on firms during the implementation period have been high. Firms have had to do so much in the past year that some may be tempted to take their collective feet off the gas, but there's no time to relax. The next stage has started, which will involve the FCA looking at all interactions with retail customers through a Consumer Duty lens. The proof of whether firms have got compliance right will be both in the results of their own monitoring and follow-up actions, as well as in the FCA's messages to the industry generally and to specific firms who catch their attention.