Is TCF lacking TLC?

Charles Meade-King examines its aims and outcomes.

He may be contacted at charlesmk@ifact.co.uk.

If a retrospective cost-benefit analysis was applied to the Financial Services Authority’s six year long Treating Customers Fairly project, what would be the outcome? It is likely that the measurable benefits for consumers set against the costs incurred by the regulator and regulated firms would reveal a very large, negative gap. If this premise is accepted, then it would be appropriate for there to be debate about why this is the case, what worked well and what did not, and what could be done to improve such an exercise, were it ever to be repeated in a similar guise. The purpose of this article is to address these questions, as the costs against the benefits are so disproportionate that the outcomes need to be examined and lessons learnt.