Consumer Duty
Consumer Duty
At Alpha Bank London, we regard Consumer Duty as our commitment towards our customers for their loyalty and trust.
With customer fairness and consumer protection being our priorities, we have set the highest of standards for our products, services and customer support and we always place our customers’ needs at the focal point of our attention to ensure customers receive good outcomes at all times.
Alpha Bank London as a dual regulated firm, is required to comply with the legislation enacted by the UK Government and regulation as published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) in regard to Consumer Duty requirements.
What is “Consumer Duty”?
The FCA’s Consumer Duty is designed to set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services The Duty requires firms to act in good faith, avoid foreseeable harm and enable and support consumers to pursue their financial objectives. It is a significant shift in the FCA’s expectations of firms and their culture and behaviour. The impact of the initiative cannot be under-estimated in terms of its regulatory intentions.
The FCA is trying to drive culture and conduct changes in firms by placing an expectation that a firm’s approach is embedded across the entire customer journey, and within each of its relevant parts. It signals an intended destination of the FCA’s journey to outcomes-based regulation starting with a new Principle supported by rules and outcomes.
As per Conduct Rule 6 and Principal 12, firms and individuals should always act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.
The FCA’s cross cutting rules are designed to strengthen the standards of conduct under the Consumer Principle. The rules apply across all areas of a firm’s conduct and are based on three common themes.
Consumer Duty Cross Cutting Rules
- Act in good faith towards retail customers
- Avoid causing foreseeable harm towards retail customers
- Enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives
The four outcomes of the Consumer Duty
Products and services
- Products are designed and distributed to meet the needs and objectives of a target group of customers.
Price and value
- Customers receive fair value for the products and services they buy.
Consumer understanding
- Customers are provided with clear and timely information to help them make informed decisions.
- Firms to ensure all customer communications are clear and concise throughout the product lifecycle.
Consumer support
- Customers are treated fairly and receive good service, especially when they are vulnerable or need help and an appropriate range of resourced channels are made available for support.