Our latest research - customers see little impact of FCA's Consumer Duty one year on

The key findings:

• 84% of consumers have seen no difference in service from financial providers since the implementation of the FCA’s Consumer Duty a year ago¹
• Vulnerable customers want better access to human support
• Health insurers and pension providers receive the poorest reviews from customers²
• Smart Money People’s Your Money, Your Voice campaign is calling on consumers to leave more reviews of their providers

Our latest research shows that most consumers (84%) have seen no improvement in how financial companies treat them following the implementation of the FCA’s Consumer Duty one year ago.

With this data in mind, our latest campaign ‘Your Money, Your Voice’ encourages customers to leave reviews about financial services providers, to enable companies to better understand what their customers need and want.

Our study also revealed that 7% of consumers have experienced declining levels of service in the past year. This is directly at odds with what the Consumer Duty legislation is trying to achieve.

Adequate support not always available

Consumers’ biggest frustrations are having no access to human support (48%), untrained staff (34%), no available phone number (32%) and an over-reliance on chatbots (24%). However, only 23% of customers have left a review for their financial service provider in the past year, and only 35% said they’d given feedback directly to their provider in the past five years, suggesting their negative experiences are not being recorded.

Personal loan and buy now, pay later customers were the least satisfied with the service they’ve received. Over-reliance on ‘live chats’ (30%) along with poor customer communications (28%) were the top reasons why consumers express dissatisfaction. Over a fifth (22%) of people had experienced unempathetic staff members too.

However, at our review platform – which holds over 2 million independent reviews – health insurers received the lowest reviews, followed by pension providers. This analysis indicates that health insurance customers are more willing to review providers, while loan customers are more hesitant about leaving reviews.

Prepaid account and current account customers are the happiest with their providers. This is also reflected across our review site with current accounts receiving the most positive reviews. The research found that efficient service (49%) and knowledgeable staff (33%) lead to the most satisfied customers.

Meeting the needs of vulnerable customers

In our study of 2,000 consumers, a proportion self-reported on criteria which would consider them to meet the FCA’s definition of being vulnerable. These customers highlight access to ‘real people’ as the most important factor for their service experience. Notably, 81% of these customers said they’d seen no positive improvement in the way their financial services companies treat them in the past 12 months.

The view from our CEO

Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People had this to say about the research:

“The FCA’s Consumer Duty guidelines are specifically designed to put the onus of consumer communications and outcomes on the provider. However our data shows customers are not seeing the impact of these guidelines 12 months later. It’s particularly concerning that vulnerable customers have not seen an improvement in their experience during this time. This is why we are encouraging consumers to feedback on both good and bad experiences. Smart Money People works with financial services organisations to better understand and serve their customers, helping to drive better outcomes for both providers and their customers.”

Get involved with our campaign

If you’re a financial services company and would like to get involved with our ‘Your Money, Your Voice’ campaign, gaining insights by encouraging customers to leave reviews, contact our Business Development team.

If you’re a consumer, don’t forget to leave a review for your financial provider. Click here to leave a review.

¹Smart Money People commissioned a survey of 2,000 UK adults with Opinium Research. The survey ran 21 – 25 June 2024.

²An analysis of Smart Money People’s 2 million customer reviews was conducted in June 2024.