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Conduct Comment
News views and articles from Conduct Matters Ltd.
Will we remember what they did while we were watching?
26th March 2020
When we talk about what is a good culture one phrase often comes up “what we do when no-one is watching”. It’s all very well to be seen to do the right thing but is that what you would do if you thought you could get away with behaving unethically. Sadly, the world is littered with people who do things they know are wrong because they think no-one will find out. One example that springs to mind is the 2015 story of the managing director of an asset management company (by all accounts earning more than £1m per year) who spent several years paying £7.20 for a daily journey for which he should have paid £21.50. I am also reminded of the story of Paul Flowers. He was chairman of the Co-Op bank, a business that prides itself on its ethical culture. In 2018, the FCA discovered he had using the bank’s phone and computer systems to make “a number of inappropriate calls to a premium-rate chat line” and to exchange “sexually explicit and otherwise inappropriate messages, and...
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...
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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