The FCA’s Consumer Duty sets higher and clearer standards of regulation and consumer protection across financial services.  

It takes effect from: 

• 31st July 2023 for new and existing products or services that are open to sale or renewal. 
• 31st July 2024 for closed products or services. 

Fully committed to Consumer Duty  

Across Phoenix Group, helping our customers achieve good financial outcomes has always been important to us. Our brands are fully committed to Consumer Duty and are working to make certain our products and services meet the required standards of the new regulatory framework as they come into force. 

To date we have 

• Reviewed our open products (those still on sale), and taken action where needed, to make sure they meet customer needs and offer fair value. We are currently working through this for our closed products (those no longer on sale) ahead of the 31 July 2024 deadline.
• Looked at the start-to-finish journeys our customers take when buying our products, making any changes needed to reduce the risk of poor outcomes and make sure that our customers receive good service.
• Reviewed and tested customer understanding of our key communications to ensure they are clear and easy to understand and give customers the information they need to make effective decisions. 
• Considered how we can best support customers in vulnerable circumstances to get good outcomes from our products and service.

Building on our commitment to good customer outcomes 

At Phoenix we want to help people secure a life of possibilities. Consumer Duty builds on our commitment to ensure we achieve consistently good outcomes for our customers today, tomorrow, and beyond. 

The new rules mean we must: 

• Consider the needs, objectives, characteristics (including vulnerabilities) and behaviour of our customers at every stage of the customer journey. 
• Act to deliver good customer outcomes.
• Understand and evidence whether good outcomes are being met.

There are three main elements to the duty:  

• Consumer Principle: act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.  
• Cross-cutting rules: 
  • act in good faith, 
  • avoiding foreseeable harm for retail customers, and 
  • enable and support retail customers pursue their financial objectives. 
• Four outcomes: 
  • products and services,  
  • price and value,   
  • consumer understanding, and  
  • consumer support.  

Together the rules and elements of the Duty give us a clear framework and greater focus to deliver good outcomes for our customers and keep their needs at the heart of everything we do. ​