From the 30 April, as part of their new responsibilities under the FCA’s Consumer Duty measures, all providers of regulated financial products were required to provide a fair value assessment of their mortgage deals, investments, insurance and pension plans.
Paradigm’s hub, which sits within its Consumer Duty Support hub, hosts links to mortgages, equity release, protection, investments and pension products.
To comply with the Consumer Duty rules, which come into force on 31 July, the documents have to be accessed by advisers and assessed by each individual firm to review whether they believe the products offer fair value to their customers.
Advice firms can use the documents when assessing the fair value of their own service propositions .
The statements produced by financial product providers will help advisers to:
• Understand the characteristics of the products.
• Understand the identified target market.
• Consider the needs, characteristics and objectives of any vulnerable customers.
• Identify the intended distribution strategy.
• Ensure the product will be distributed in accordance with the target market.
Christine Newell (pictured), mortgage technical director at Paradigm, said: “Product manufacturers are providing Paradigm with these links and advisory firms should now be making use of these documents to undertake the reviews which will help them meet their Consumer Duty obligations.
“It is another process step change for advisers but one that, we at Paradigm, are aiming to make as easy as possible, with all documentation accessible from one, rather than multiple, website pages.
“We are just a few months away from the official start of the Consumer Duty rules, but as firms can see, the requirements need to be met on an ongoing basis.”
