Consumer duty regulations are not simply a box-ticking exercise but instead will be an ongoing process for advisers and firms.
The Financial Conduct Authority's consumer duty came into force today (July 31) and will see stricter rules on customer satisfaction applied to the financial services industry.
The new rules have been welcomed by Oriana Ascanio, client development manager at Foundever, who told FTAdviser that this will be a process for advisers, rather than something that is only approached the one time.
She said: “It is giving everyone an opportunity to review and really think, ‘is our customer journey geared towards the full area that the FCA is asking us to look at?’.
“Everyone in this industry works here because they care about customers and we want them to have good service and get good outcomes, but where it gets a bit tricky sometimes is the systems and policies.”
Foundever works with 170,000 associates, of which 20,000 are in financial services.
Ascanio said consumer duty will require advisers to regularly assess whether they are meeting the requirements of the new regulations.
She added: “Obviously there is additional work for advisers but in the long run it should be a better experience for everyone.
“I think on the whole it is about understanding the customer journey and when you’re reviewing you have to make sure every touch point has been designed with a fair and good outcome in mind.
“It will be a process, it is not like ‘we’ve done it and checked that box now’. We have to go back and see how we are cross checking and meeting the objectives.”
This thought was echoed by Lisa Laybourn, director of technical policy and risk at membership organisation, Tisa (The Investing and Saving Alliance), who said the consumer duty deadline is “not the end of the journey”.
She added: “Even now the deadline for implementation has passed, we as an industry cannot sit back and think the work is done.
“Culture is key, and there will be many firms that will have found themselves in a good place, having already put the customer at the heart of their business, and for some there may still be further changes required.”
Terry Huddart, digital director at financial services consultancy the Lang Cat, said while there was an “encouraging” response from the majority of providers there are still some who are not ready for consumer duty.
He said: “For those that aren’t ready yet, what we’re hearing consistently is that the delivery projects are under the cosh, meaning providers have not yet been able to cope with requests for consumer duty information.
“These inconsistencies in approach make it difficult if not impossible for advisers to use this information in a consistent manner.
"All providers need to do more to make these documents available in one location, but also to provide them in a consistent format so advisers can start to compare and contrast as part of their research and due diligence process.”
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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