Kevin Okell: Financial services or social services?

'FCA will have to acknowledge tension'

clock • 3 min read

Imagine walking into a Ford dealership, sitting in a few cars, struggling to get comfortable in the seats and being directed by the salesperson to the Volvo dealership down the road on account of their superior lumbar support, writes Kevin Okell, pointing out it is not a very realistic scenario. Yet this is what he believes the FCA is essentially asking some providers to do …

In the blue corner we have the champions of consumer protection. From the original Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) principles to the 2018 discussion paper on a Duty of Care and now the latest guidance consultation on vulnerable customers, the FCA is taking a growing interest in how best to deliver on its obligation to protect consumers. In a further litmus test of regulatory attention, the level of fines related to treatment of customers has also been on the rise, with more than half of the value of 2018 fines citing unfair treatment of customers in the judgement. In the red corner are t...

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