Consumer Duty


The Consumer Duty came into effect on 31 July 2023. To help ensure you’re fulfilling its requirements, this page contains the relevant material you may need.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions.

What is Consumer Duty?

The Consumer Duty is a regulatory standard set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under which firms must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. Building on existing standards, it provides better protection for consumers in the retail financial services market. It puts customers’ needs first and sets higher expectations for the standard of care they receive from providers.

It achieves this by:

  1. Requiring firms’ services and products to be fit for purpose and offer fair value.
  2. Requiring firms to help consumers make effective choices, or act in their interests.
  3. Supporting improved supervisory processes, allowing firms to focus on preventing harm before it arises, or address it more quickly where it does occur.
  4. Create a fairer and consumer-focused advice landscape where firms can compete and innovate with good consumer outcomes in mind.

Outcomes of Consumer Duty

How does this impact me?

The Consumer Duty is likely to increase pressure on firms that run a centralised investment proposition (CIP) or a centralised retirement proposition (CRP). This is because firms will likely need to provide evidence on an ongoing basis of how their CIP or CRP segments clients to meet their individual needs. One way to reduce this burden is to outsource the responsibility for creating and managing investment portfolios to a Discretionary Fund Manager.

Firms currently following PROD 3 guidelines may choose whether to follow the rules in PROD or the Consumer Duty products and services outcome. However, failing to comply with PROD would also be taken as failing to comply with the Consumer Duty.

Key documents

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