Consumer Duty: FCA continues to ramp up the pressure

Hot on the heels of a clear warning by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that too often, the mandatory Consumer Duty implementation plans were too light on the details required, the regulator has issued a portfolio of letters specific to each financial services sector setting out its Consumer Duty expectations.

While the letter centred on consumer lending issued by the FCA is not explicitly focused on dealer finance, Tara Williams, Chief Compliance Officer AutoProtect Group, is clear that when taken in conjunction with previous concerns about firms’ preparedness for the Consumer Duty, dealers need to review and where appropriate, step up their plans, noting, “The letter sent to consumer credit lenders, which covers dealer finance, pulls no punches. It makes it clear that the FCA will hold business’ senior leaders accountable for implementing the Consumer Duty and for giving it the priority and urgency they believe it requires.”

The urgency is evident early in the FCA’s letter; “We expect the Consumer Duty to be a top priority for you personally. We want good outcomes for customers to be at the heart of firms’ strategies and business objectives, and leaders have a key role to play here. Firms’ Boards and senior management should embed the interests of customers into the culture and purpose of the firm.”

In January, the FCA warned that having assessed some of the required Implementation Plans, which had to have been completed by October 31st last year, some firms had been ‘complacent’ and if they believed they could ‘get by’with repackaging or supplementing existing approaches, they risked not thinking deeply or freshly about what was required.

Building on these concerns, the FCA has highlighted that a vital part of the Duty is that firms, which includes dealers, must be able to define, monitor, evidence and stand behind the outcomes their customers are experiencing concerning; products and services, price and value, consumer understanding and consumer support.

The monitoring must enable firms to identify where customers, or groups of customers, are experiencing poor outcomes, and where this is the case, firms must take appropriate action to rectify the situation.

Tara concludes, “Dealers must work closely with their lender partners to ensure they understand what is required and are aligned on delivering good customer outcomes. However, they must also recognise that in managing accountability, they must have developed processes and controls that fulfil the FCA’s define, monitor, and evidence requirement on an ongoing basis. With a particular focus on; products and services, price and value and consumer understanding, where dealers often play a significant part in the customer journey, which in turn can define customer outcomes.”