TCF & Vulnerable Customer Policies

On Tuesday, the FCA’s Executive Director of Supervision (Retail and Authorisations) Jonathan Davidson, delivered a speech at the Credit Festival, focusing on the challenges during the pandemic for consumer credit firms to take decisive and effective action when it comes to the fair treatment of customers.

With the consumer credit industry including approx. 40,000 firms and serving millions of consumers, Mr Davidson advised TCF and vulnerable customer awareness still remains one of the FCA’s top priorities. The speech provided guidance on the FCA’s ‘expectations around forbearance, the operational challenges firms need to overcome, the importance of vulnerability, and the future direction of the industry’.

With millions of additional individuals plunged into the ‘vulnerable’ catergory since the start of the coronavirus crisis, the fair treatment of customers and how to effectively and ethically work with those who are vulnerable is essential. Firms are expected to step up their existing procedures and controls to ensure that the abundance of financially and mentally vulnerable people are dealt with in a fair and compliant manner.