Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to implement a duty on regulators to identify vulnerable customers within the finance industry.

The government believes that the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) existing objectives to protect consumers and to promote effective competition are sufficient to safeguard the interests of vulnerable consumers. The government therefore sees no need to legislate to impose an additional duty on the FCA.

In November 2017, the FCA published their Future Approach to Consumers Paper. One of the core ideas within this Paper is “Regulating for Vulnerable Consumers”. The FCA expects firms to pay attention to possible indicators of vulnerability and have policies in place to deal with consumers where those indicators suggests they may be at greater risk of harm.