Trade association PIMFA has welcomed the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) decision to extend the implementation of Consumer Duty.
PIMFA, the trade association for the wealth management, investment services and the investment and financial advice industry, had previously called for such a move from the regulator.
The regulation is one of the FCA’s most ambitious and far-reaching to date and aims at providing better safeguards across the financial services sector.
Simon Harrington, head of public affairs at PIMFA, said: “The Consumer Duty has the potential to be a transformative piece of regulation which will, we hope, substantially improve how firms serve consumers and work towards ensuring they receive superior financial outcomes.
“But for that to be the case, as we have previously argued, firms need more time to implement the new regulations.
“We welcome the fact that the FCA has now recognised that such a transformative piece of regulation does indeed require additional time for firms to implement new systems and processes to comply with it.
“The decision to extend the implementation of the Consumer Duty to 12 months for new and existing policies, and then another 12 months for closed books, is broadly in keeping with our recommendations to the FCA.
“We are pleased the regulator has listened to the industry and demonstrated a willingness to work with us to ensure this new regulation works well from the very beginning.
“Our focus now will be on supporting firms to implement the Duty.”
