Investors in Customers (IIC) has launched a Consumer Duty assessment to help firms meet their Consumer Duty requirements.
The Financial Conduct Authority recently published its final rules and guidance for a new Consumer Duty, which will require financial services firms to adopt clearer standards of consumer protection and deliver good outcomes for retail customers.
The IIC said its new assessment will help regulated firms produce data which will be an integral part of the reporting required to meet the new Consumer Duty rules, while also providing targeted insights against the Cross Cutting Rules and Consumer Outcomes to drive improvements in performance.
The assessment comes in two parts; an internal process which assesses employees’ preparedness for the new regime and an external process which surveys consumers.
For the internal survey, IIC has identified the 20 most critical internal drivers of Consumer Duty performance such as strategy, back book, third party suppliers and aligned them to the three Cross Cutting Rules and four Consumer Outcomes. The outputs delivered show a firm’s internal performance against each key driver measured against the Cross Cutting Rules and Consumer Outcomes.
For the external survey, IIC has aligned the survey questions to the typical value chain and the four Consumer Outcomes so that the effectiveness of the customer journey can be measured and understood.
The cost of the reports is £4,500 for the individual employee or customer survey and £7,950 for the combined survey.
James Edmonds, customer experience director at IIC, said: “With less than 100 days until every regulated firm’s Consumer Duty implementation plan has to be in place, firms need to be focussed on quickly getting a handle on how well they are adhering to the imminent Consumer Duty rules, and to begin to ask the tough questions that it has been a little too scary to ask in the past.
“Firms could be forgiven for expecting another ‘tick-box’ exercise given recent history, but this won’t be the case with Consumer Duty. And more importantly, I can see it being a real challenge to evidence that they are complying, and the onus is on the board to closely oversee the implementation, which knits well with the SMCR regime.”
The rules and guidance are being introduced on a phased basis, for new and existing products or services that are open to sale or renewal the rules come into force on 31 July 2023 and for closed products or services, the rules come into force on 31 July 2024.
However, firms have less than 100 days until they must be able to provide an implementation plan.
John Moret, chairman of IIC, added: “The new Consumer Duty rules are a significant development in the oversight of all regulated businesses. The aim of ensuring that all businesses have a culture where the customer genuinely is at the heart of the business has to be welcomed, but of course the key will be the way in which the FCA enforce the new rules. In offering its new Consumer Duty assessment solution I believe IIC can help the boards and management of regulated businesses large and small ensure that they can evidence their business’s performance in meeting the new outcomes.”
