At Raymond James, our client-first culture means we’ve always put the needs of our clients before everything else. That’s why the Consumer Duty regulatory framework, introduced by the FCA on 31 July 2023, resonates strongly with our core values.
The Consumer Duty is designed to ensure that firms deliver even higher standards of consumer protection.
It introduces Principle 12, a new Consumer Principle that provides a high-level expectation of conduct and associated outcomes.
New cross-cutting rules set the overarching conduct which firms must demonstrate when they act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers:
The Consumer Duty builds on existing standards by introducing four specific outcomes, with the aim of providing better protection for clients by putting their needs first and by setting higher expectations for the standard of care they receive from financial services providers. These four specific outcomes represent the key elements between firms and their relationships with consumers:
Products and services are designed to meet the needs of consumers, and sold to those whose needs they meet
The price of products represents a fair value for retail customers in the target market for those products
A firm must support retail customer understanding so that its communications:
A firm must design and deliver support to retail customers so:
Our client-first culture, and our business strategy of supporting clients and their wealth managers, are already well aligned with the Consumer Duty.
