‘Room for improvement’ – FCA reveals brokers’ Consumer Duty performance

The FCA has revealed what actions personal and commercial (P&C) intermediaries took in response to the Consumer Duty regulations.

The regulator questioned firms about how they implemented the rules, which came into play on 31 July 2023.

The duty requires firms to measure, analyse and benchmark their performance across a number of metrics to bolster service.

These metrics include products and services, fair value, consumer understanding and consumer support.

According to the FCA’s survey, which was published on 21 February 2024, some 80% of P&C intermediaries conducted a fair value assessment of existing products and services, while 11% said the process was still ongoing.

It also found that 66% had assessed the end-to-end consumer journey, with 26% stating that the work was in progress. 

A total of 82 P&C intermediaries were questioned for the survey, which was conducted by Ipsos UK.

The FCA said the findings should provide a snapshot of the implementation of the duty – it also warned that caution should be observed when generalising the findings due to the small sample size.

Warning

The findings were published as Sheldon Mills, executive director of consumers and competition at the FCA, spoke about the progress being made on Consumer Duty.

He said that it had “rapidly become our most talked about piece of regulation” and that “many firms have already made great progress”.

However, he said that the FCA had identified that “there is still much room for improvement”.

“We do not want to see firms waiting to see if we will intervene to address an issue,” he said.

“Firms also need to get serious about their data and not assume they can just re-package existing information.

“And we want to see the duty embedded across every firm at every level, with leadership from boards.”