Pension firms told to look ‘beyond narrow compliance’

The message came in an update to the regulators’ joint regulatory strategy.

The regulators said: “We want firms to consider the needs and types of consumers at the different stages of their pension journey and tailor their offering to them, with a focus on ensuring consumers achieve good outcomes.”

They said the Consumer Duty includes a focus on key elements of the firm-consumer relationship which are instrumental in helping to drive good outcomes for customers.

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The outcomes relate to elements such as:

• Products and services — “We want all products and services to be designed to meet consumers’ needs and targeted at those consumers.”
• Price and value — “We want all consumers to receive fair value. Firms will need to ensure that there is a reasonable relationship between the price paid for a product or service and the overall benefit a consumer receives from it.”
• Consumer understanding — “We want firms’ communications to support and enable consumers to make informed decisions about financial products and services. As well as ensuring individual communications are fair, clear, and not misleading, firms will need to go further and consider their overall approach to communicating information to make sure they equip consumers to make effective, timely and properly informed decisions.”
• Consumer support — “We want firms to provide a level of support that meets consumers’ needs throughout their relationship with the firm. The support firms provide should enable consumers to realise the benefits of the products and services they buy and ensure they are supported when they want to pursue their financial objectives.”

Based on these elements, the regulators said they want the pensions industry to extend its focus beyond narrow compliance with specific rules and consider the impact on consumers and the outcomes.

They said: “Linked to this, we welcome the announcement by pension providers and schemes of a co-ordinated industry campaign to boost understanding and engagement with pensions.”

The regulators concluded: “This co-ordinated action is particularly important in the current macroeconomic environment where savers may save less into their pension.”

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