A plague of frogs, the FCA, and cracking Consumer Duty
As you will no doubt be aware, the FCA held a webinar on Wednesday (jointly with FOS) to share thoughts on what was the first anniversary of the Consumer Duty coming in to force. Dawn Hyams, Head of Investor Governance, The Wisdom Council There was nothing very new that came out of the call (apart […]
Embedding tried and tested principles into your Consumer Understanding programme
During the work undertaken for Consumer Duty, we’ve been aware of the many different teams write for financial services customers. It isn’t just a marketing function – middle and back office teams often lead too. This means it can be difficult to step back and see what the common pitfalls are for your firm’s communications […]
Understanding emotion is key to a good business relationship
Emotions wind their way through every facet of our daily lives. They drive our decisions and moderate our state of mind, some might argue especially when it comes to savings and investments. Anger, fear, happiness and sadness can all come with the customer into meetings or as they read communications from you, and these feelings […]
Redrawing the advice map
The joint policy paper on the advice guidance boundary from HMT and the FCA is trying to find new ways to persuade the industry to create what the FCA refers to as a ‘continuum of support’ for customers. Here are some of our reflections on whether or not the latest proposals will help customers access […]
Breaking down SDR – what it means to the industry and its customers
It has felt like an advent calendar of regulatory announcements in the last couple of weeks – covering everything from money market funds, the offshore funds regime and guiding principles around anti-greenwashing to the UK’s SDR policy statement. The latest SDR announcement Pretty much everyone in the industry would agree that the UK needs a […]
Bringing finance to life for customers
If anyone was still labouring under the misapprehension that the end of July provided some sort of closure on Consumer Duty work (for those firms without closed books at least), Nisha Arora’s speech on 1 November made very clear that the FCA does not view this as a ‘once and done exercise’. In fact, if […]
The dawn of a new era – embedding Consumer Duty into BAU
When the FCA published its final guidance on the new Consumer Duty just over a year ago, few firms would have fully grasped the scale and scope of work needed to hit today’s implementation deadline, in order to evidence that they are providing good outcomes for consumers against the FCA’s four key pillars. Customer Understanding […]
Consumer Duty – our perceptions of an industry working hard to comply
As July’s Consumer Duty deadline approaches, firms are looking to move from project delivery to incorporating the Duty into their business as usual. Albeit, while ploughing ahead with this transition, firms are still grappling with exactly what is expected of them by the regulator. Based on our current slew of Consumer Duty projects, our events, […]
A worrying lack of preparation for retirement
Our latest research into the attitudes of the 55-75-year-old cohort has shone a clear light on a worrying lack of preparation for retirement that is impacting those reaching retirement age. Our Great Retirement Study demonstrates that there is no playbook for how to approach retirement as flexi-retirement, ill health and a lack of DB pensions […]
Celebrating International Women’s Day
As I look to celebrate International Women’s Day with an afternoon invite to Downing Street and an evening with the shadow Chancellor, I hope you are all feeling empowered by the women you are or that you have in your lives. Progress has been made on closing the gender gap, but there’s been no shortage […]