Moret calls for Consumer Duty dashboard

The dashboard would help advisers comply with the new regulatory duties by keeping track of consumer service standards and benchmarking. 

Mr Moret said a dashboard could have four key benefits:

• Ensuring the FCA can quickly and simply measure the success of establishing the new regime
• Impress upon all firms that the FCA will monitor firms’ performance against the new standards
• Encourage all firms to undertake the monitoring suggested in CP21/13
• Lead to firms taking action swiftly to address areas of underperformance

Mr Moret said he was encouraged by the additional detail on the need for monitoring and reporting in the FCA’s latest Consumer Duty consultation.

He said the financial services sector was at a crossroads and that it was important all advice firms treated the new Consumer Duty proposals seriously.

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He said: “Our experience with organisations that were and are subject to the “treating customers fairly” regime is that many firms, particularly those of medium and smaller sizes, were slow to appreciate the implications of this requirement at the time it was introduced and in some cases for several years thereafter. The initial FSA monitoring of the regime also seemed inadequate.  

“We believe that to ensure success of the new “consumer duty” regime the FCA should consider introducing an annual return through a simple dashboard, which measures the four outcomes and provides evidence that the aims of consumer duty are being met.

“This would verify that senior managers and staff understand their responsibilities in ensuring that customers receive the support and service they deserve.

“The dashboard should be an open platform so it is not restricted to a single assessment body but have clearly defined measures to provide consistency and should include an indicator to show whether the ratings were based on an internal or external assessment.”

John Moret is chairman of Investor in Customers (IIC), an independent customer experience and insight business. 

He is also the principal of the MoretoSIPPs consultancy and chair of advisory business Intelligent Pensions.

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