Firms are needlessly ‘gold plating’ Consumer Duty rules, FCA says

The rate of new fund managers being founded has slumped in the UK

Scores of financial services firms are needlessly “gold plating” their compliance with Consumer Duty rules, the financial watchdog’s policy chief has claimed, as the regulator pushes back over concerns the rules have become too burdensome for businesses.

Charlotte Clark, director of cross-cutting policy and strategy at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), admonished companies who went “above and beyond” Consumer Duty requirements, warning that the approach was “not in the consumer’s interest.”

“Certainly within some firms we have seen this overinterpretation and gold plating over some of the compliance activity,” Clark told the Following the Rules podcast , adding that “things have to be done in a proportionate way.”