Exploring the implications of Consumer Duty with EPAM

We caught up with Michael Nicholls, Principal, Financial Services at EPAM Systems, Inc., to discuss the FCA’s upcoming Consumer Duty and its wider implications for FinTechs within our community.

What is the overall aim of the new Consumer Duty from the FCA?

The overall aim of the Consumer Duty is to place customer outcomes at the center of financial services. This is no new task according to Nicholls as “putting the customer at the heart of the bank has been talked about for decades.” In reality, however, a better understanding of the customer hasn’t always been used in their best interests and this is where the Consumer Duty plays its role, which Nicholls describes as “attempting to remove the wiggle room!”

“We could say the pendulum has swung the other way - where previously the financial institution had to do all this stuff on the input side and could then say, ‘it’s not our fault the customer has bought an unsuitable product’, it’s now about what actually happens as a result of the product offered. We’ve moved from just paying dues to actually delivering the outcome for the customer.”

Read the full article here.