FCA publishes guidance on treatment of vulnerable customers

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a 41-page piece of guidance for businesses on how to treat vulnerable customers better.

The guidance is split into a number of sections: understanding the needs of vulnerable customers, skills and capability of staff, product and service design, customer services, communications, and monitoring and evaluation.

Fundamentally, the FCA said it wanted to see firms doing the right thing for vulnerable consumers and have that embedded in their business culture.

The main aim, the regulator said, was for firms to be more focused on ensuring outcomes for vulnerable customers were at least as good as those of other clients. It also wanted to see greater consistency across both firms and sectors so vulnerable customers were treated fairly no matter what financial service or product they were buying.

Who are vulnerable customers?

For the purposes of its guidance, the regulator said a vulnerable customer is someone who “due to their personal circumstances is especially susceptible to detriment” and that its definition was intentionally broad.

It added: “Some consumers will be actually vulnerable because of their personal circumstances. Actual vulnerability can be permanent but is often transient because consumers’ circumstances constantly change. This can cause consumers, who had not previously been vulnerable, to become so at some stage of their life.”

The FCA said examples of vulnerability could include health conditions or illnesses that affect the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, the low ability to withstand financial or emotional shocks, major life events such as bereavement or relationship breakdown, and low knowledge of financial matters.

FCA executive director of strategy and competition Christopher Woolard said: “Protecting vulnerable consumers is a key priority for the FCA and we want to see firms explicitly embedding the fair treatment of vulnerable consumers into their culture. Where we find that firms are not doing enough to ensure that consumers are treated fairly, we will take action.

“Firms need to take particular care to ensure that vulnerable consumers are treated fairly as they may be more likely to experience harm. The guidance should drive improvements across the industry, improving outcomes for millions of vulnerable consumers”.

Well done the FCA, say I.

Savers urged to be vigilant after fraudsters steal £202m from pensions

I noticed this piece in the Mail on Sunday and found it to be very disturbing.

The Insolvency Service, which is a part of the Department for Business, has shut down some 24 companies guilty of pension abuse since 2015, according to this Mail on Sunday piece. Around 3,750 victims have been affected, including both individuals and businesses, with losses amounting to more than £200m. Eight company directors have been disqualified for a combined 57 years as a result of the victims’ losses, the article adds.

“There is no room for complacency,” warns Aviva head of savings and retirement Alistair McQueen. “We may spend 40 years saving, so we should spend more than 40 minutes considering our options at retirement.”

Consumer minister Kelly Tolhurst adds: “If you are approached to make an investment from your pension, always do your homework and seek independent advice. If you think you are a victim, report it to Action Fraud or visit the Scam-Smart website for further help.”

Please, if you know someone who is considering taking their pension without taking proper Independent Financial advice, try and persuade them to take advice from a Financial Adviser who is  regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and who authenticity can be verified.

 

FCA rules trump EU data deletion law

An interesting aside to the GDPR coming into force at the end of this month means that Advisers such as myself won’t be expected to delete client information under incoming right to erasure rules, if it is subject to a record-keeping requirement set by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

[If you are unaware of what GDPR stands for, and you are responsible for data keeping, you would be well advised to find out sharpish].

The FCA handbook specifies advisers must keep sufficient client information for the regulator to be able to monitor the firm’s compliance, including all services and transactions undertaken by it.

New rules introduced as part of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is to be enforced on 25 May, will allow clients to ask for their personal information to be erased.

This has led to some concern among advisers that clients could abuse this rule to weaken the adviser’s position before bringing a claim for compensation.

But the regulators have clarified that UK regulatory rules would come first when requests for file deletion are received.

The FCA points firms in the direction of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which oversees compliance with these rules, and has issued guidance stating firms can refuse to comply with a request for erasure if this is for the “exercise or defence of legal claims”.

It is understood the right to erasure does not provide an absolute ‘right to be forgotten’.

Instead, the broad principle underpinning it is to enable a person to request the deletion of personal data where there is no compelling reason for this to be kept, for instance for marketing purposes.

Suspect pension advisers to be named on watch list

Excellent news:-

Firms and advisers arousing industry suspicions of wrongdoing will be placed on a semi-secret watch list to warn businesses considering working with them.  The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) is working on a closed list with names of pensions schemes and advisers that have been flagged up as potential scammers, to be shared among pension scheme trustees and providers.

Margaret Snowdon, chairman of the association, said the goal of the list isn’t to stop any pension transfers, but to raise awareness among trustees and providers when a name in the list pops up, so they can increase their due diligence.  She said: “Some providers and trustees have their own watch list. What we are looking for is to create a closed network where they can share this information.”  Ms Snowdon is currently in talks with the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, the Financial Conduct Authority, The Pensions Regulator, HM Revenue & Customs and the Pensions Ombudsman to involve them in the creation of the list, which she expects to be launched by the end of the year.

However, details such as how the information will be shared, who will be in charge of the list or how potential legal implications will be avoided are still being discussed, she added.  We understand that the FCA is aware of the creation of this list but it’s not involved in these discussions at this time.

Several industry experts, however, have raised concerns about the efficiency of such watch list.  Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London and former pensions minister, said: “As a provider, and particularly as a member-owned business, we are very keen to explore ways in which we can better protect our members’ money at the point of transfer.  The idea of a list of receiving schemes where concerns have been raised is an interesting one which should be explored, but it would be likely to raise considerable practical and legal difficulties”.

Yes, we agree, but it is vitally important to protect the public from unscrupulous, individuals who give those of us who give good, solid advice a bad name.

FCA ramps up warnings over online investment scams

The FCA is warning the public to be vigilant protecting themselves from online investment fraud, with figures showing investors lost an approximate daily amount of £87,410 to binary options scams last year.  Latest data from the FCA’s Scam Smart campaign shows the kind of investor being targeted by online investment scams is changing.  The regulator says those under 25 were six times (13 per cent) more likely to trust an online investment offer made via social media than people aged above 55.

The data shows more than one in five (23 per cent) survey respondents say online customer testimonies and reviews increase their trust in an investment company.  A further one in 10 (11 per cent) say they wouldn’t conduct any of the listed checks at all, such as checking whether the firm was regulated by the FCA or registered with Companies House, before parting with their money.

FCA has issued a warning on fake regulator legitimising scam and FCA director of enforcement Mark Steward says: “As people have become more sceptical of investment-related cold calls and consumer habits have changed, we have seen investment fraud moving online and to social media.”  He adds: “While their websites and profiles appear to be professional, they are all too often run by fraudsters who fix prices and pay-outs.”

Tom McPhail, of a well known investment house, says investors need to be savvy on recognising unregulated firms.  He says: “The whole investment community including legitimate firms, the regulator and investors themselves must remain alert to the risk of fraudsters trying to separate ordinary people from their hard-earned cash.”

On 3 January, binary options became a regulated investment product, which means all firms trading in these products need to be FCA authorised.  The regulator has since published a list of 94 firms without FCA authorisation that it understands to be offering binary options trading to UK consumers