Bright Change supplied a Project Manager, onsite at a Tier 1 Financial Services firm working on the FCA Consumer Duty Regulation 2023 Programme. The FCA introduced a new Consumer Duty Regulation that would set higher expectations for the standard of care that firms provide to consumers. This requires a significant shift in culture and behaviour, with a consistent focus on consumer outcomes.

What is Consumer Duty Regulation 2023?

Consumer Duty is a package of measures, comprised of:

• A new Consumer Principle that provides an overarching standard of conduct
• A set of cross-cutting rules and outcomes that support the Consumer Principle by setting clear expectations for firms’ cultures and behaviours.
• Consumer Duty is effective as of 31st July 2023 for all open and existing products. Firms need to ensure the outcomes are adhered to through analysing existing policies, documentation, processes and collateral against the Consumer Duty deliverables.

Project Responsibilities:

• Overseeing the end to end delivery of the Consumer Duty requirements across the organisation.
• FCA requirement for the project to provide detailed updates into the Board level; to then relay the updates to the FCA directly.
• Due to the highly regulated nature of the project; Clearly defined RACI with a Governance Structure; along with Risks & Issues to be raise in a timely manner.
• Liaise with internal SME’s to identify key impacted business areas; teams with underlying procedures; artefacts that require updating to meet the new regulations.

Project Expected Outcome

To ensure the organisation is compliant to the requirements of Consumer Duty by 31st July 2023 and have the necessary governance in place in readiness for a FCA review of all project artefacts as well as an internal audit review.