FCA wants to cut red-tape from Consumer Duty overlaps

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is urging automotive retailers and finance firms to provide feedback to help reduce red-tape around any overlaps with previous rules and Consumer Duty.

It said the rules governing financial services could be streamlined for rules that could be removed or simplified where there is a crossover with the new Consumer Duty regulations that were introduced last summer.

Consumer Duty introduced a new set of regulations to set higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services, and requires firms to put their customers’ needs first.

The FCA acknowledged the complexity of its own rulebook and said reducing that complexity could “lower costs for firms, encourage innovation and help support the risk appetite needed to support growth, ultimately boosting international competitiveness and the economy over the long-term”.

Launching the review, Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said:  “The Consumer Duty marked a major shift for firms and consumers by setting higher and clearer standards of consumer protection and requiring firms to put their customers’ needs first. 

“We now want to seize the opportunity of the Duty and the move to a clear outcomes-based approach to streamline our rulebook, lowering costs for businesses and supporting the competitiveness and growth of the economy.”

The FCA has recently delayed the publication of its review into motor finance and has now said it won't be able to publish further guidance until May 2025.

In a recent FCA official podcast, Rathi said the FCA has certainly found "issues" in the ways that motor finance was offered or incentivised in the past and the ongoing review will determine the breadth of those issues, and what system of redress will be needed.

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