Consumer Duty applies to incidents from this date

The Consumer Duty may apply to complaints about incidents that took place on or after 31 July 2024, the Financial Ombudsman Service says¹. The Duty was introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 31 July 2023 and sets a standard for consumer protection in financial services¹.

The Ombudsman sets out three dates that decide whether the Duty is relevant to a complaint¹:

The same milestone brought closed products and services into scope. The CCTA, a trade body, said the 31 July 2024 deadline "now requires firms to have produced board-level reporting, covering their focus on good consumer outcomes as well as governance, culture and conduct", and that it "also brings into the scope of the duty, closed products and services"². The Finance & Leasing Association described closed products and services as those "which have become subject to the Duty from 31 July 2024"³. National Debtline states that since 31 July 2024 the Duty "also applies to any closed (unrenewable, unavailable or now withdrawn) products and services which you are being asked to pay"⁴. Which? reported in July 2023 that providers of closed products, such as savings accounts no longer open to new customers, were given "an extra year (31 July 2024)"⁵.

The Duty requires firms to act in good faith, avoid causing foreseeable harm and enable and support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives¹. It sets four outcomes covering products and services, price and value, consumer understanding and consumer support¹. The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland told a Stormont committee that the Duty was "operationalised from July 2023 with a final implementation milestone on 31 July 2024"⁶.

The Ombudsman says the Duty is regulatory guidance, so where relevant it may be one of the things considered when weighing up whether a business did what would be expected and whether a consumer was treated fairly¹. Where something did not go as expected, it then looks at how that affected the individual and what needs to happen to put things right¹.

Why it matters for households

The date of an incident now affects how a complaint is assessed. For anything that happened on or after 31 July 2024, the Ombudsman may take the Duty into account alongside other rules and regulations¹. For incidents between 31 July 2023 and 31 July 2024, it depends on whether the product or service was available to buy or renew on or after 31 July 2023¹. Incidents before 31 July 2023 fall outside the Duty¹.

The change also covers products people still hold but which are no longer sold, including accounts and policies that are closed to new customers³. National Debtline notes that this extends to closed products and services a consumer is being asked to pay for⁴.

Complaint routes are unchanged. A complaint still goes to the firm first, and if it takes longer than eight weeks or is rejected, the Financial Ombudsman Service can be asked to investigate, according to Which?⁵. The Ombudsman says it weighs evidence from the consumer, the business and any relevant third parties¹.

What happens next

The FCA published an update on the Price and Value outcome of the Duty on 19 September 2024, covering insights from the first year and setting out areas of supervisory focus: cash savings, Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) insurance and platform cash³. The FCA said it "will act where it sees firms not making improvements in response to feedback, or if firms' products and services are clear poor value outliers"³. The CCTA said the final deadline "by no means signals the end" of firms' focus on the Duty, and that the regulator's focus was expected to move from implementation to reviews and insights into industry-wide compliance². No further implementation dates have been reported.

For more on how the rules work, see The Consumer Duty: what it means for you, and the wider consumer protection and regulation and policy sections.