FCA urges firms to improve treatment of vulnerable customers

The guidance aims to ensure that vulnerable consumers are consistently treated fairly across financial services sectors.

Firms will also be required to 'explicitly embed the fair treatment of vulnerable consumers into their culture'. The FCA said firms will need to think about what the guidance means for their business and customers, and how they are understanding and addressing the needs of vulnerable customers.

The regulator added that whilst many firms have made significant progress in how they treat vulnerable consumers, "in some cases, firms are clearly failing to consider the needs of vulnerable consumers, leading to harm".

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: "Protecting vulnerable consumers is a key priority for the FCA and we want to see firms explicitly embedding the fair treatment of vulnerable consumers into their culture. Where we find that firms are not doing enough to ensure that consumers are treated fairly, we will take action.

"Firms need to take particular care to ensure that vulnerable consumers are treated fairly as they may be more likely to experience harm. The guidance should drive improvements across the industry, improving outcomes for millions of vulnerable consumers."