‘Duty of care’ or hot air?

The Financial Conduct Authority is consulting on a potential ‘duty of care’ owed by firms to consumers when conducting regulated activities. But are the proposals simply another retread of the 2001 Principles or an excuse not to enforce the existing rules? wonders Adam Samuel.

Adam SamuelBA LLM DipPFS MCISI FCIArb Certs CII (MP&ER) Barrister and Attorney may be contacted atadamsamuel@aol.com.For links to where you can buy the second edition of ‘Consumer Financial Services Complaints and Compensation’, see www.adamsamuel.com/book.

A key conclusion of the recent Gloster Report on the London Capital & Finance scandal was that the rules required no improvement but the way in which the FCA enforced them left much to be desired. The regulator’s response in CP21/13 is to talk about fiddling with the rules as a way of covering up their inability to enforce the ones they already have.