Financial Services Academy: Consumer Duty

The Consumer Duty is a new regulatory regime targeting firms that deal with retail consumers. Its arrival is set to prompt widespread changes in financial services and firms are well advised to ingratiate themselves with the new regime as soon as possible. The FCA’s second consultation now brings the proposals to life, with preliminary policy decisions made, and an impact assessment revealing potential one-off direct costs for the sector of almost £2.4bn. The proposals will impact on firms across the distribution chain, even where there is no direct contract with underlying retail clients.

In order to assist firms with this challenge, Norton Rose Fulbright has created the Consumer Duty Series, which is a programme of presentations and podcasts that explore the details of the new regime along with practical guidance for firms on the steps they should take over the course of 2022 to ensure their organisation is ready for this major change when implemented in early 2023.

In January we kick off the Consumer Duty Series with the first of our presentations on this topic, exploring the framework and key components of the Consumer Duty and the likely impacts for firms in different sectors. The January briefing will provide a high level overview of the following topics:

• The scope of the new duty and principle;
• The cross cutting rules;
• The four outcomes;
• Key considerations for firms ahead of the new regime.

Following the presentation, the Series will continue through a number of podcast episodes, each focussing in greater detail on a particular aspect of the new regime, including proposals on: price and value, and customer service as well as thematic issues such as considerations for retail distribution. Details of how to subscribe to these podcasts will be provided at the session in January.

Listen to our podcast

In this episode, Peter Snowdon and Matthew Gregory speak to Simon Lovegrove about the recent FCA consultation paper, CP21/13, on proposals for a new Consumer Duty in financial services.

(Apple Podcasts / Spotify)