FCA Consumer Duty – Implementation Plans

FCA has published its final rules and guidance for a new Consumer Duty that will set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services and require firms to put their customers’ needs first. Acting to deliver good outcomes should be at the centre of firms’ strategies and business objectives. FCA wants to see increased confidence from consumers, ensuring they are equipped with the right information and the right support to make effective, timely and properly informed decisions. 

The FCA is giving firms 12 months to implement the new rules for all new and existing products and services. Firms are expected to make full use of the implementation periods – FCA has set down a timetable of key milestones, the first of which is the end of October 2022 when boards (or equivalent bodies) are expected to have scrutinised and agreed their firms’ implementation plans.

How the duty applies and what it means in practice will vary by sector and by firm. Some firms will already be meeting parts of the new standards through their compliance with existing handbook provisions, and the Duty will apply proportionately depending on the nature of firms’ offerings and their customer base. But all firms will need to map their business to the new Duty and be able to evidence how they are monitoring and acting to deliver good outcomes. 

Please join us for our webinar where we will walk through some of the building blocks you will want to consider in your implementation plans.

To help you navigate this process, we have created our Consumer Duty Toolkit setting out the steps for firms to consider and how we can support you through the implementation process. You can access our Toolkit here: fca-a-new-consumer-duty (cms.law)

In the meantime, we know many of you have questions on exactly how the Consumer Duty is intended to apply in practice, particularly in relation to the scope. We would be interested in hearing about these, please send us an email here.

We look forward to seeing you at our webinar.