Treating customers fairly (TCF) is about a culture; about organisations doing business in a way that ensures customers get fair treatment.
All firms must to be able to demonstrate to themselves and the FSA that they are consistently treating their customers fairly.
The FSA has defined six outcomes to explain what TCF has been designed to achieve for consumers:
1. Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is central for the corporate culture.
2. Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly.
3. Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.
4. Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances.
5. Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is of an acceptable standard and as they have been led to expect.
6. Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint.
Optial Solution
With the Optial platform organisations can:
- Define extra checks within the product lifecycle
- Record, assess, monitor and report customer complaints
- Add and monitor controls for staff awareness and training
- Define, assess and measure risks of non-TCF compliance
- Create and store checklists (including those supplied by the FSA)
- Distribute checklists, policies and audits throughout the organisation
- Analyse and report on assessments, controls effectiveness, actions and findings.
Within Optial is it possible to link customer complaints, risks, controls, audit findings, actions and any other object, to a policy to ensure an organisation’s performance and compliance against the TCF requirement can be reported on easily and effectively.
This information is then available for internal and external audit purposes and provides the evidence required that the organisation is treating its customers fairly.