FCA survey: firms report rising trust in regulator overseeing consumer protection rules
Annual survey of regulated firms shows higher satisfaction with the FCA, as the regulator says it has delivered £5.6bn in benefits to consumers and the economy over the past year.
Firms report higher trust in the FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority’s latest annual survey of regulated firms, carried out jointly with its Practitioner Panel, shows rising confidence, satisfaction and trust in the regulator, the FCA said this week.
The survey found 79% of firms are highly satisfied with their relationship with the FCA, up from 74% the previous year. The proportion rating the FCA a highly effective regulator rose from 69% to 76%, while 75% of firms reported high levels of trust in the organisation.
Firms said they were most confident in the FCA’s work to protect consumers, at 87%, followed by ensuring markets work well, at 85%, and enhancing the integrity of the UK financial system, also at 85%.
Consumer Duty understanding improves
The survey also measured how well firms understand the Consumer Duty, the rules requiring firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. This year, 88% of firms said they understood what the FCA expects of them on supporting consumers and embedding the Duty, a figure the regulator says improved after it acted on feedback from last year’s survey by issuing further guidance.
There was also a 27 percentage point increase in firms’ understanding of the FCA’s Secondary International Competitiveness and Growth Objective, and a 25 percentage point rise in confidence in the regulator’s ability to deliver it.
Cutting red tape
The FCA said it is simplifying reporting requirements by removing outdated or duplicated data returns affecting 90% of firms, part of a wider effort to reduce the regulatory burden that firms identified as an area needing further progress.
Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said: “A year into our strategy it’s encouraging to see growing confidence across many areas of our work. We know there is more to do. For example, while we can’t do our job without the data firms provide, we should continue to simplify requests and make them easier to manage.”
Matt Hammerstein, chair of the FCA Practitioner Panel, said the results indicated firms continue to have broadly positive views of the regulator, including strong understanding of Consumer Duty expectations and significant growth in confidence around the FCA’s secondary objectives on growth and competitiveness. He said the Panel wants the FCA to be clearer about the outcomes it expects its priorities to produce.
What it means for consumers
The FCA said it has delivered an estimated £5.6bn in benefits to consumers and the economy in the first year of its strategy, including launching the My FCA service, reducing reporting burdens to save firms around £16m annually, and introducing nearly 50 pro-growth measures.
Since the survey was conducted, the FCA says it has continued work with HM Treasury and the Financial Ombudsman Service to modernise the redress framework, supported industry delivery of the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, begun regulating Buy Now Pay Later products, established a new regime for cryptoassets, and progressed the PISCES private markets framework. No date has been given for the next annual survey.