Under the Consumer Duty, firms should act to deliver good outcomes for all customers, including those with characteristics of vulnerability.

We will conduct a review into how firms are acting to understand and respond to the needs of customers in vulnerable circumstances, and share our findings by the end of 2024. This is in line with our 2021 commitment.

Our review will look at firms’ understanding of consumer needs, the skills and capability of staff, product and service design, communications and customer service, and whether these support the fair treatment of customers in vulnerable circumstances.

We’ll also look at the outcomes consumers in vulnerable circumstances receive and whether they’re as good as the outcomes of other consumers.

We’ll conduct consumer research as well as gather information from firms and consumer representatives to make this assessment.

Rather than conduct a separate piece of work focussed solely on age related issues, as we indicated we would in 2017, the review will look more broadly at how firms treat customers, including older customers, in vulnerable circumstances.

This will enable us to understand whether those consumers most susceptible to harm are receiving good outcomes.