TCF – weighed in the balance

The FSA continues to pour out material on Treating Customers Fairly. Papers in July on Culture and Management Information were tough enough to read to deaden the spirits of the most hardened regulatory junkie, writes Adam Samuel and he is one of the more enthusiastic followers of TCF. We turned to him for a look at how the FSA and the whole initiative are going.

Adam Samuel Dip PFS, LLM, barrister and compliance consultant can be contacted on tel 020 7435 2620; email AdamSamuel@aol.com, website www.adamsamuel.co.uk His book, “Complaints and Compensation: a Guide to the Financial Services Market”, is available from www.cityandfinancial.com and www.adamsamuel.com.

Treating Customers Fairly is in some ways a simple idea with a complicated past. It is one of the very few FSA principles that does not find its roots in the Securities & Investments Board (SIB) Principles. One obvious reason for this is that the Financial Services Act 1986 regulators did not have the power to supervise the whole of the financial services process, only the buying and selling part of it. After-care was not part of the regulatory agenda.