Lord explained that RDR was quite inward focused, looking at what businesses needed to do around qualifications, fees and structure.
“Consumer duty puts clients at the heart of it,” she said. “This is a slightly different focus.
“Obviously, it's another FCA initiative but from my perspective, it can only be positive. I think we'll probably be sitting here in another 10 years and saying the impact it's had and it's helped us evolve further from where we are now.”
As an industry, Lord said firms and individuals have demonstrated over the years, whether that's through RDR or the Covid pandemic, that financial services is “an incredibly resilient and adaptable profession”.
“I am seeing a lot of positivity from businesses around what consumer duty could do, and if it continues to try and help us raise awareness with consumers of the value of financial advice, and helps us reach more individuals in society to have that financial advice, that financial planning, that can only be a good thing,” she added.
“There's a lot of people in the profession that are saying we already do that, we don't need the FCA to be telling us to do that but actually, it's putting a framework in place for consistency and it's going to drive even more professionalism.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
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