Consumer Duty conversations: Key focus areas for wealth and investment firms and asset managers

With increasing regulatory focus on the further relevant rules and guidance brought about through the introduction of Consumer Duty, there is a greater regulatory expectation on firms to embed the Duty from the Board down and look to meet FCA expectations by also ‘doing the right thing.

In her first speech as the FCA’s newly appointed Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, Therese Chambers emphasised that ‘doing the right thing’ sooner rather than later is very much at the heart of the Consumer Duty and more recently FCA Director Nisha Arora has emphasised that the Duty is not a “once and done” exercise.

Our experts will seek to address the following critical questions and shed light on expectations for these firms:

• How should firms approach the Consumer Duty to assure themselves that they have embedded the duty and achieved the expected cultural shift?

• What steps should firms be taking to ensure that they are ready for closed book products coming within the Duty from 31 July 2024?

• What practical strategies are appropriate in the context of the Consumer Duty? How should firms look to engage with the FCA in this process?

• How do the latest Dear CEO Letters affect firms’ implementation of the Duty?