Fifth of firms will fail December TCF deadline

The FSA says it anticipates 20% of larger firms will fail to meet its December deadline for demonstrating they are treating customers fairly (TCF). In its latest progress update, the regulator says only 80% of relationship-managed firms are “still capable” of meeting the deadline after examining the management information (MI) progress at 96 firms.

However, it says this hints at great progress after pointing out only 13% of the 96 firms met its March TCF deadline.

The FSA, which says it will not be publishing small firms’ progress until later in the year as it has “not yet assessed a representative sample of this group”, is now urging all companies to step up their TCF efforts.

Sarah Wilson, FSA TCF director, says: “Having appropriate MI or other measures in place puts firms in a position where they can measure the quality of the outcomes they are delivering for consumers.

“These results show that adequate MI is not yet fully in place in the firms assessed – it does not mean that they are treating their customers unfairly.

“However, we now expect all firms to maintain their momentum and to undertake a significant amount of further work to meet the December deadline of demonstrating that they are consistently treating their customers fairly.”

The FSA says for firms that failed to meet the March deadline on time and where it “thinks it unlikely the firm is capable” of meeting the December deadline, it will intervene.

It says it expects to publish the results against the December deadline in September 2009, adding thereafter it will cease to have a bespoke TCF initiative.

Instead, it says, the assessment of how firms treat their customers “will become a part of business-as-usual”.

As part of the update, the FSA has published further examples of good and poor practice for firms regarding TCF.