If Treating Customers Fairly is not to be confused with good customer service, then what is it?

This has been a common response since the FCA first announced its initiative of TCF. On the face of it, it seems a reasonable enough question, but TCF is much more than simply good customer service and the FCA have specified some clear aims and desirable outcomes to help with the distinction;

Aims

• To help customers fully understand the features, benefits, risks and costs of the financial products they buy.
• To minimise the sale of unsuitable products by encouraging best practise, before during and after a sale.

Outcomes

Consumers should be sure that;

• They are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is a key part of the corporate culture.
• They are marketed and sold retail products that are designed to meet their needs and have been marketed accordingly.
• They receive clear information and are kept suitably informed, before, during, and after the point of sale.
• They receive suitable advice which takes account of their personal circumstances.
• They receive the product performance and standard of service that they have been led to expect from the firms they deal with.
• They do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms when they want to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint.

The following pages are examples of adviser good practice and fit well with our ethos of TCF. We are happy for all of our introducers to adopt them. When you do business with us we want you to feel confident that you are being treated fairly. We want you to understand all the parts of the product you are buying. If you are not sure about something we want to make it easy for you to ask for an explanation.

Remember to give us full information

• We need to know all your clients financial commitments so we can accurately source on lenders criteria.
• f your client needs a mortgage on which they only pay the interest (an ’interest only’ mortgage), we need you to tell us how they plan to repay the balance.
• If you are not giving us proof income , we need you to be accurate and realistic when you tell us how much your client earns.

Our aims

• We want to make it absolutely clear what we are offering. For example, the conditions of the business, including rates, charges, likely timescales and so on.
• We want to deliver what we say we will deliver. We want you to get exactly what you are expecting without surprises.
• We want to sort out any problems that may arise along the way. If anything goes wrong, we want you to feel confident that we will do everything we can to put it right
• We want to be fair and not take advantage. We will make sure you understand the product before you buy recommend it.

Our duties to you

• We will only suggest products which most closely fit your clients needs. We will not source products based on how much money they will make us, but on how suitable they are for your client.
• We will only suggest products which are affordable. We will not suggest a product if we do not think your client can realistically keep up with the payments.
• We will make it easy for you to complain if you are not happy. We encourage all customers to give us feedback, whether it is good or bad. We want to be the best we possibly can be and can only improve if you tell us when we get it wrong.

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