Consumer Duty platforms backup

Consumer Duty

• At the end of July, the FCA will release a full paper of what their new Consumer Duty requirements will entail.

• Based on what we know so far, the key areas and outcomes will be:

What is consumer duty?

• Consumer Duty will go beyond what the FCA has previously outlined around delivering good value to consumers, and further emphasise a need to ensure new and existing products best serve their target markets.

• Products and services must serve clients in a way that leads to good customer outcomes and the provider must seek to prevent any foreseeable harm.

• In addition, providers must support customers to make informed decisions through clear, sense-checked communications, as well as resources that consumers can utilise.

Why is Consumer Duty so important for platforms to act on?

• The FCA outlines that ‘distributors’, i.e. investment platforms, must ensure that products and services are suitable for the intended target market. Platforms must act to ensure that consumers are supported to achieve good outcomes and are placed into the most appropriate product for them.

• Consumers must understand their options and be able to come to an informed decision in order to choose the most appropriate product. Platforms can achieve this through clear communication, and by pitching and marketing their products to the right audience.

What should platforms do?

Throughout CP21/36, the FCA highlight the importance of introducing third parties to consumer duty processes, mainly to gain validity and accountability. This is where Boring Money comes in.

Our key products and research that can help platforms with Consumer Duty can be outcome-specific, or outcome-wide.

Outcome wide:

• Ongoing customer panels

• Ongoing or one-off online communities

Outcome 1 – Products & services

• New Product Development research

• Segmentation and focus groups

• Existing product testing with mini-groups

• Inclusive research with those classed as vulnerable

Outcome 2 – Price & value

• Boring Money calculator validation

• Syndicated surveys across all providers to measure value

• Pricing clarity assessments

Outcome 3 – Consumer Understanding

• Iterative communications testing

• Framework for good communication

Outcome 4 – Consumer support

• User research of websites and key pages

• Mystery shopping of customer service touch points