The Consumer Duty is a new regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which came into effect on 31st July 2023 for new and existing products. The deadline for back-book products is 31st July 2024. Much like treating customers fairly, the Consumer Duty will require a change in company culture. There is now a requirement to ensure that the consumer is at the heart of every decision, with a focus on good customer outcomes. The FCA now has an expectation that consumer outcomes are monitored throughout the business with oversight from the board and C-level senior management. The four key pillars of the Consumer Duty are:
- Price & Value – Do your customers get value from the service provided?
- Products & Services – Are your products fit for purpose and used for the purpose intended?
- Customer Understanding – Do your customers understand you when you communicate?
- Customer Support – Are customers able to talk to you and raise complaints easily? Are vulnerable customers experiencing issues you weren’t aware of?
BDP recently supported our clients in achieving compliance by utilising a data-led approach. Armed with a bespoke dashboard of management insights, customer outcomes were easily tracked, and any areas of harm that started to form were quickly investigated and corrected.
Firstly, optimal metrics to monitor good customer outcomes were defined. Each metric had a well-defined threshold, so any issues present could be quickly identified and actioned. Carrying out a thorough gap analysis on the data sources to drive these metrics produced a list of new data that had to be captured both internally and externally. Working with the data engineers, we helped to integrate these new sources into the Datawarehouse ready to feed into the bespoke dashboard.
Phase one of the Consumer Duty is already well underway, and clients have already drawn on data from their dashboard, quickly actioning unforeseen areas of concern. As we move into phase two of Consumer Duty, BDP will create self-serve analytics to enable the business to answer compliance questions without the need for additional data requests. This ultimately allows our clients to understand the full story around what is driving customer outcomes.
BDP can help with every step towards Consumer Duty, no matter where you are in your journey. Whether it’s the business analysis to understand what Consumer Duty means to you and your customers, the data engineering to acquire and store well-maintained data, or the detailed analytics and visualisation of that data in an easy to consume format, we have experts in all these fields.
