Turning Conduct Risk into a Competitive Opportunity

The payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal has already cost a number of banks more than £18 billion in provisions. Many other examples of customer mistreatment have made the headlines: IT problems that have led to banking customers being unable to access their funds and pay their bills; charging customers unlawful fees for late payments; even charging customers higher rates because of their race. Not to mention the LIBOR rate-fixing scandal, which has seen numerous multi-million dollar fines imposed on offenders in Europe and the US. The new UK Regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is committed to ensuring that these sorts of situations do not arise again. It will intervene and impose penalties where it sees unacceptable risk to the fair treatment of customers.