In case you have not seen it yet – or have seen it and are wondering what it means and how you should respond – if at all

Here is the letter

This is my summary :

FCA have spotted that with increased demand/need for debt management due to cost of living crisis – there is an increased risk that firms operating in this field might fail customers and lead the industry into disrepute.

Problems they identify are:

• unmet demand
• poor quality work done by firms
• vulnerable people being let down by the systems in firms
• non regulated firms failing customers
• firms going bust

What the FCA expects us to do is:

• help more people- probably through digital innovation
• meet standards
• care for vulnerable customers
• be guarded when dealing with referrals from non regulated firms
• avoid going bust by planning properly

What the FCA are going to do is:

• gather and use more data to assess firm’s performance
• set higher standards
• require firms to work within EDI and sustainability principles

(all in all make things harder for us all)

In short they are saying – there is pressure coming down the line to firms from increased demand and the FCA is going to address this by requiring more from firms and keeping tighter reins on regulatory requirements.

on behalf of the group I have sent this to Victoria and Marios and they are checking it out and will come back to us – hopefully we will then have a standard CA response… watch this space for updates 🙂