Consumer Duty
A firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers
The FCA published its Consumer Duty rules in July 2022, for implementation in two stages, in July 2023 and July 2024.
At the highest level, the duty can be summed up in a new principle: "A firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers." As such, Consumer Duty regulations provide an opportunity for firms to demonstrate their commitment to their clients and boost confidence in financial services.
The FCA’s principle is elaborated in cross-cutting rules, or obligations, which state that a firm must:
- act in good faith towards retail customers
- avoid foreseeable harm to retail customers
- enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives
These cross-cutting rules are linked to four outcomes:
- Products and services
- Price and value
- Consumer understanding
- Consumer support
This page provides a repository for the many resources we have produced to help our members and customers navigate the duty and signposts others that are in development.
Consumer Duty Toolkit
This toolkit has been designed in association with compliance experts who have worked with smaller financial services firms to help them prepare for the introduction of Consumer Duty. It is designed to help build a comprehensive and coherent presentation of all the activities that makes a firm compliant with the Duty.
It provides a practical approach to answering the question: Do I say: “show me where it says I can’t”
or do I say: “is this ethical”?
The toolkit consists of an overview document, and eight templates. Some templates have been pre-populated with example answers, and some statements will be more relevant for some firms than for others.
- Download Overview Document here
- Download Gap analysis here
- Download Implementation Plan here
- Download Interim & Ongoing Review here
- Download Fair Value Statement: Initial Advice here
- Download Fair Value Statement: Ongoing Advice here
- Download Fee Divergence Register here
- Download Vulnerable Client Checklist here
- Download Vulnerable Client Register here
Guidance
- 6 March 2023 - Duty Bound – latest developments in the road to implementation
- 2 December 2022 - Do your Duty – how to demonstrate a client-centric approach
- 16 November 2022 - Good Practice Guide: A practical guide to Consumer Duty: Personal Finance
- PFS POWER Planning – a new consumer outcomes focused approach to financial planning
Podcasts
- June 2023 - PFS podcast Consumer Duty and Vulnerable Clients
- May 2023 - FTAdviser podcast featuring PFS FCA can sort unfinished parts of RDR with consumer duty
- March 2023 - PFS podcast Vulnerability and the Consumer Duty
- October 2022 – PFS podcast Getting to grips with the Consumer Duty
Articles
- PFS POWER: The most important skill in Financial Planning
- PFS POWER: The Power of Comprehensive Client Information
- PFS POWER: How can you plan unless you know what you are planning for?
- PFS POWER: The most important client meeting
Webcasts
- November 2022 - PFS Festival of Financial Planning webcast FCA Consumer Duty – Pressing The Reset. Window dressing or a genuine opportunity to do and be something different?
- November 2022 - PFS Festival of Financial Planning webcast Vulnerability and the New Consumer Duty
- PFS webcast Estate Planning and the FCA’s Consumer Duty
- PFS webcast A new consumer duty, A new paradigm
- PFS webcast: Consumer Duty: research and due diligence
- PFS webcast: The psychology of persuasion; how to increase your influencing skills
- PFS webcast: Pricing your service
- PFS POWER webcast: POWER Planning – advancing consumer focused financial planning
- PFS POWER webcast: Ace your annual review
Training and certified courses
Assess – New Consumer Duty pathway of digital learning modules, including an assessment so firms can easily roll-out and evidence adoption of core knowledge.
Training - Explore our range of new Consumer Duty training, so firms can easily roll-out and evidence adoption of core knowledge.
Qualifications
Consumer Duty, vulnerable customer and customer outcome content exists across all relevant existing PFS qualification framework units at Award, Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma, and is being updated with subject experts to ensure up to date.
Competency assessment and reporting tools
PROFICIENCY+ Consumer Duty Diagnostic Tool - The tool enables your firm to manage, develop and evidence the behaviours and competence of your workforce against the expectations of the FCA.
