Published: September 27, 2021
Payments industry body the Emerging Payments Association is fighting against proposals from the UK financial regulator to force consumer facing companies to put take steps the FCA claims will put consumers first, saying that the plans will ultimately hurt the end user.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is taking feedback on a new ‘Consumer Duty’ that the regulatory body says will set clearer and higher expectations for firms’ standards of care towards consumers.
In particular, the Consumer Duty will require companies to ask themselves what outcomes customers should be able to expect from their products and services, act to enable, rather than hinder these outcomes, and assess the effectiveness of their actions.
“In essence,” said the FCA in its consultation paper, “we want to see firms putting themselves in their customers’ shoes”.