Treating Customers Fairly

Fact sheet 2: Management Information - SYSC

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have identified the importance of their principle that a firm must pay due regard to the interests of its customers and treat them fairly. This requirement has been underlined by reference to other FSA Principles, the FSA Business Plans, speeches and other output.

FSA Supervision is also focusing on Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) when examining the way in which firms conduct their business.

The Systems and Controls Sourcebook sets out the need for a firm to have adequate systems in place for the business to be effectively managed and controlled. Management Information (MI) is a key factor in being able to understand all elements of the health of the business and is invaluable in being able to establish that adequate resource is available to manage levels of business. By definition, many aspects of customer service are dependent upon management being able to match demand with proper resource.

To operate the business efficiently a firm must be able to collect and collate relevant data in a timely manner and produce output in a readily digestible form.

MI should have defined distribution within the firm. Output should be accessible to all relevant staff to enable them to understand not only their own performance, but also to provide information regarding the interface with customers. The accessibility must be supported by proper usage of the data with key highlights being converted into project activity.

It is therefore necessary to identify the key audiences for MI and elements should clearly be routinely made available to:

• Board members (including non-execs)
• Senior executives
• Business unit execs
• Risk & compliance management
• Supervisory staff

The content of MI will vary dependent upon the nature of the activity of the firm. Typical content should provide:

• Data on complaints trends (both customer and other)
• Persistency rates
• Customer treatment
• Performance against defined standards (including any incentive schemes in operation)
• IFA feedback
• Press coverage
• Customer feedback
• Compliance monitoring reports.