Source · Select Committees · Treasury Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Acknowledged
The FCA should consider how to improve its engagement with the poorest consumers, including seeking...
Recommendation
The FCA should consider how to improve its engagement with the poorest consumers, including seeking opportunities to improve the availability of data about people who are on the lowest incomes. The FCA must seek data on the issues vulnerable consumers experience directly. Civil society groups and other researchers can provide a valuable input, but they are more constrained than industry in terms of access to funding. (Paragraph 124) Specific areas of regulation
Government response summary AI-generated
The FCA contributes to HM Treasury’s yearly report on financial inclusion and supports the Government’s leadership on this issue and is willing to discuss with the Government how any additional duty to report on their part could avoid duplication and provide benefit to those who need support the most.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
An understanding of the experience of consumers is critical to us achieving our consumer protection objective. We have expanded our presence outside of London with the recent establishment of our Leeds office and expansion in Edinburgh this year; we are a regulator for consumers across the whole of the UK, no matter their circumstances, not just the City of London. We are improving our use of data so that we can make more effective and faster decisions. As mentioned above, our Financial Lives Survey provides data on consumer levels of indebtedness, low financial resilience and vulnerability. This is a comprehensive survey about the financial circumstances of the nation, which builds on other data we gather and process from our Supervision Hub, firm reporting and through our policy and supervision work, to help us set our priorities for the year ahead. We publish all the data we can in a dedicated section of our website. On top of this, the Consumer Panel plays a vital structural role in the work that we do. These are not our only channels of engagement with consumers, including those on low incomes. Our Consumer Network provides us with invaluable insights from organisations on the front line of civil society, many of which provide direct support services to those facing some of the toughest circumstances imaginable. Some of these same consumers will of course go directly to our Supervision Hub, or the Money and Pensions Advice Service (MaPS), who are on the Consumer Network but who are also part of regulatory family. MaPS has a consumer facing role, and we work very closely with them to understand the issues consumers are facing in different sectors. The Consumer Network furnishes us with challenge and insights based on their depth of experience, and that makes us a better regulator for the public that we serve. We also place a great emphasis on ensuring that our Executive team prioritise visiting communities across the country, to meet consumers and the organisations who are working to make a difference to their lives. Recent visits have taken our Executive team to Bradford, Essex and Leeds, and have prioritised meeting consumer groups to understand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on communities in these areas. Innovation
Read the full response on Parliament ↗