How the FCA's New Consumer Duty Affects Compliance Recording: A Deep Dive by Kerv

Published 23/10/23 under:

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently released its final rules and guidance on a new Consumer Duty aimed at setting higher standards for the care that financial firms provide to consumers.
As a leading provider of Compliance Recording solutions for audio, text, and video capture, Kerv Collaboration & Compliance (C&C) is here to break down what exactly this means for your business.

The Consumer Duty aims to elevate the standard of care that financial firms must provide to consumers. It focuses on outcomes rather than prescriptive rules, allowing for greater flexibility and adaptability, especially in the face of technological changes. The Duty comprises a new Consumer Principle, cross-cutting rules, and specific outcomes related to products and services, price and value, consumer understanding, and consumer support.

The FCA’s new rules could potentially expand the scope of businesses that need to consider compliance recording solutions to capture data and that list is long!

1. E-Money and Payments Sector: Companies in this sector may need to record customer interactions to demonstrate compliance with the new standards of care.
2. Consumer Organisations: These organisations may need to record interactions to prove they are acting in the best interests of consumers.
3. Industry Groups/Trade Bodies: Their role in shaping industry practices could require them to maintain records that impact consumer welfare.
4. Policy Makers and Regulatory Bodies: Ironically, these entities may also need to keep records to ensure alignment with the new consumer protection standards.
5. Asset Management and Funds Sector: These firms may need to consider compliance recording solutions to meet new expectations.
6. Fintech Startups: Startups offering financial products may need to implement recording solutions to demonstrate compliance.
7. Businesses with Complex Consumer Interactions: Companies offering complex financial products may need to record these interactions to prove they are enabling informed choices.

How Kerv C&C can help

Kerv offers a comprehensive suite of recording solutions that capture audio, text (across most apps and collaboration platforms), and video interactions, ensuring you have all the data you need to demonstrate compliance with the new rules.

Our advanced analytics tools can help you gain insights into customer interactions, allowing you to identify areas where you can improve consumer understanding and support, in line with the FCA’s new guidelines.

With Kerv C&C, you can be assured that all recorded data is stored securely and is easily retrievable for compliance checks. Our solutions are designed to meet the highest standards of data security and compliance.

But actually it gets a little more complicated than that. We have received an influx of requests recently for various lesser known features that financial organisations require in order to adhere to FCA’s consumer duty regulations.

Typically these organisations provide financial advice and services to consumers and according to the FCA consumer duty regulations, need to be able to prove that their customers are provided with the appropriate level of support and information to determine an optimal customer outcome.

These include:

• Data collection and analysis/monitoring of interactions
• Rule-based alerts for communication compliance breaches
• Keyword detection of sensitive phrases
• Contextual analysis of customer communications
• Reporting and documentation production to prove compliance when requested
• Training and education
• Platform customisation to align with unique policies and procedures
• Access to detailed audit trails that have the ability to capture data across all communication platforms.

The FCA’s new Consumer Duty is set to bring about significant changes in the financial services sector, raising the bar for consumer protection. Kerv’s Compliance Recording solutions is trusted by financial institutions of varying sizes to proactively identify and address compliance risks related to these new standards. We work as a partner to support our customers ensuring they are well-equipped to meet these standards, allowing them to build and maintain trust with their own customers now and in the future.

For more information on how Kerv Collaboration & Compliance can help you start or continue along this complex compliance journey, get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.