Recent regulatory developments of interest to financial institutions with focus on consumer finance. See also our General regulatory news linked in the Related Materials links.

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• COVID-19: FCA speech on mortgages and positive consumer outcomes

COVID-19: FCA speech on mortgages and positive consumer outcomes

On 8 October 2020, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a speech given by Jonathan Davidson, FCA Executive Director of Supervision - Retail and Authorisations, on "Mortgages and coronavirus: enabling positive consumer outcomes".

In his speech Mr Davidson reminds mortgage firms about the FCA's expectations regarding their treatment of those customers who will face ongoing difficulties during this unprecedented period. Mr Davidson's comments included:

• while understanding firms' operational challenges, firms should be actively planning how they will resource their customer-supporting functions, ensure that their training and competence frameworks are effective, and how to monitor and mentor their staff;
• firms should continue to monitor third-party firms to which they outsource, to make sure they are delivering the good customer outcomes that firms expect;
• a reminder that firms should prioritise support for borrowers that are most at risk of harm, or who face the greatest financial difficulties. They must deliver outcomes that are right for the individual borrowers, rather than adopting "one size fits all" solutions;
• digital solutions to deal with the high volumes of customer enquiries should deliver appropriate outcomes, in a way that supports customer understanding. Firms must also make sure that more hands-on support is available for those that need it;
• firms must ensure that their communications with customers are clear, so the journey is easy to follow for all and customers are signposted to additional appropriate support where relevant;
• firms must ensure that they can identify and act on customer vulnerability; and
• firms will need to monitor the outcomes customers receive, so they can act quickly to fix any issues and put customers back in the right position.

Over the coming months, Mr Davidson states that the FCA will carry out supervisory "multi-firm" work to look at how firms have adapted to the challenges and the outcomes received by consumers. If it sees significant issues, it will intervene. However, it understands that this is a difficult environment, so where it is evident that firms are trying to do the right thing, it will work with them to ensure that issues are resolved.

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