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Conduct Comment
News views and articles from Conduct Matters Ltd.
Overdrafts - the biggest shake-up for a generation
28th January 2020
Fairness and equality feels like a logical and simple thing we should all want. However, we live in a society where some people get a worse deal than others because their vulnerability makes it harder for them to cope with financial knocks. I am reminded of this by the social media uproar this morning, that has been caused by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) decision about unarranged overdrafts – it is banning confusing fees/charges and making the costs more transparent. FCA research revealed that charges for unarranged overdrafts were very high, often 10 times the cost of a payday loan – costing more than 10% (of the debt) per day. Just stop and think about that for one moment. If you go overdrawn by £100, the debt doubles to £200 in less than 2 weeks. The FCA states that people living in deprived areas and hard-pressed communities, who have low incomes are 70% more likely (than the general population) to incur unarranged overdraft charges and refused payment fees. From the...
Creating the perfect workplace
12th November 2019
So, what’s the most important issue for your company to get right to be successful? Is it good governance (lots of helpful policies and procedures)? Maybe, it’s keeping costs low or making sure you use state of the art top notch computer systems? Most of us will say it’s fair treatment of...
It can happen to us all - the LPA struggle
29th August 2019
I recently posted that July 2019 is the 40th anniversary of when I started working in insurance. I still remember shyly walking in the doors of Eagle Star Sutton and setting to work as an underwriting assistant in the “all-in” department – where we issued and managed commercial and personal...
Healthy culture – it’s not just about processes and rules
30th June 2019
I work with many different clients who find many elements of compliance and specifically the fair treatment of their customers is directly linked to their culture. Culture is such a huge issue for our industry and it’s a struggle for many firms. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 2019/20...
Blame the insurer
25th April 2019
There is a trader in my town who has been selling fruit and veg from a stall on our high street. He has been there for some 25 years and is part of the character of the town. It has recently been announced that he has to move into a shop unit. This has really saddened me – the stall is...
Carphone Warehouse FCA fine
20th March 2019
My husband is not that keen on shopping, but he finds the experience especially challenging when we go out to buy something where there is the risk of someone trying to sell us add-on insurance cover. Add-on insurance is a policy purchased as a secondary part of a main transaction....
Are your customers happy?
21st February 2019
We talk a lot about how best to treat our customers fairly and ensure we meet their reasonable needs and expectations. However, it is very tempting to design products and services that meet our own expectations of what we think our customers need. There has been plenty of research into the...
Are you ready for IDD training requirements?
4th October 2018
The Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) came into effect on 1 October 2018 replacing the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD). The key aim of the new directive is to enhance consumer protection when buying insurance and to support competition between insurance distributors by creating a...
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