Meeting the needs of vulnerable consumers in financial services

More than two years after new rules governing the treatment of vulnerable customers, many financial firms are leaving themselves exposed to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) claims. The Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Consumer Duty from July 2023 tightened requirements on firms to provide good customer outcomes. As part of this, it set rules for dealing with vulnerable consumers, pulling together a strand of work it had started several years earlier in response to a Macmillan Cancer Support Campaign. But the FCA in March 2025 gave the sector what could only be described as a "coul...