The new FCA Consumer Duty will be much tougher than the previous Treating Customers Fairly regulatory principles, the FCA’s director of consumers investment Therese Chambers told Financial Planners in a keynote speech at the two-day Festival of Financial Planning which got under way today.
Ms Chambers said the financial services sector must appreciate that the new Consumer Duty rules, being implemented next year, involved a significant shift and a raising of standards.
She said the new rules were a “higher standard” than the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) and advisers and providers had to take this on board.
She told more than 600 delegates attending the key note: “We are seeking a change in industry behaviour. We expect all firms to take the Consumer Duty seriously.”
Ms Chambers said the new Consumer Duty should lead to better outcomes for consumers and was part of an FCA strategy to be more “proactive” and less “reactive.”
She said despite some criticism, the FCA Consumer Duty was not designed to stop investors from taking risks and investing. She said the FCA was “hugely’ in favour of investors investing amid signs many millions keep their money only in cash.
The FCA director said the FCA wanted the Consumer Duty to raise standards and push out bad actors and poorly run firms. It also wants the duty to help improve competition between well-run firms and she said, for example, more competition on fees and more and advice innovation would be welcomed by consumers.
She said duty would also help tackle growing numbers of scammers. The FCA was fighting a rising tide of scammers and was scanning 100,000 websites a day for signs of scam activity.
“The FCA is disrupting unauthorised businesses at scale,” she said.
Ms Chambers also told delegates that the FCA would go ahead with its plans to carry out a review of the boundary between advice and guidance and would also look at introducing “simplified” advice on lower risk and less complex products which could include some stocks and shares ISAs.
Ms Chambers was speaking on the first day of the Personal Finance Society’s Festival of Financial Planning. More than 2,100 had already arrived by late morning at the NEC Birmingham with more than 2,800 signed up so far for the event, the largest in the Financial Planning calendar.
The event is being held today and tomorrow, Wednesday 2 November. It was last held in 2017.
Registration for the event remains open until all places are filled. For more information visit: www.pfsfestival2022.org.
This year, Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson will be the keynote speaker at the end of today and will talk about her life and overcoming challenges.
The full programme is now live on www.pfsfestival2022.org and includes technical, skills and learning sessions from specialists and practitioners.
Other sessions will include:
- FCA’s priorities for the consumer investment sector – Therese Chambers of the FCA
- An insightful market outlook – Justin Urquhart Stewart
- Fast Track to becoming a champion with tech – Nick Eatock
- Women Financial Planners – a rare thing and an untapped resource – Sam Secomb
- How will your future business consciously embrace inclusion? – Gretchen Betts
- The Happiness Paradox – Chris Budd
The event’s hashtag is: #PFSFestival
• Financial Planning Today will be bringing coverage from the event. Check back for further updates and follow us on Twitter @_FPToday
