Retail Financial Services

Services including a review of your suitability arrangements, training, controls and procedures to conducting bespoke reviews on past business activities.

Contact us

Retail firms including wealth managers and mortgage and insurance intermediaries continue to face ongoing challenges with regulation. This is combined with handling a paradigm shift in consumer behaviour and the explosive growth of new technologies such as Robo Advice.

The increased focus on suitability from the FCA stems from Principle 9 – the requirement to ensure reasonable care in the suitability of advice provided to clients. The failure of firms to adequately comply with this principle is well-known and the inability of some firms to rectify and learn from industry wide past mistakes can cause financial detriment to consumers, as well as reputational damage to the firm and wider retail financial services industry.

Therefore, suitability of financial advice continues to be a growing priority for the FCA as advice is fundamental to providing consumers with appropriate products and/or portfolios that meet their needs, objectives and attitudes to risk.

 
How Kroll Can Help

Kroll’s experienced team comprises professionals with regulator, compliance, audit, operations and Financial Ombudsman Service (‘FOS’) backgrounds who are able to provide a range of support from a review of your suitability arrangements, training, controls and procedures to conducting bespoke reviews on past business activities. We have worked with a number of firms of different sizes and complexities, including secondments within operational teams. Whether our review focuses on a particular area of concern or is all-encompassing of the suitability process, we take a detailed approach to assessing your compliance with the suitability requirements.

 
Our Services
  • Past Business Review
    Conducting a review or a shadow review of compliance with suitability during a specific period, type(s) of clients, or product range through conducting file reviews.
  • Thematic Suitability Review
    Conducting a file review of current and ongoing cases regarding compliance with suitability requirements, identifying potential issues, gaps and root causes and recommending changes and improvements.
  • Remediation and Redress
    Assessing and remediating any suitability compliance issues as well as identifying and assisting in the calculation of fair and reasonable redress to customers.
  • Skilled Person
    Acting as Skilled Person with respect of suitability arrangements and / or a past business review in line with Section 166 requirement notices or supporting a firm through the section 166 process.
  • Post-Remedial Reviews
    Reviewing the firm’s response and remediation to identified failings from regulatory visits and providing an assessment to ensure compliance.
  • Regulatory Framework
    Reviewing and/or drafting policies and procedures to ensure compliance with regulations.
  • Compliance Monitoring
    Designing, implementing and/or reviewing your compliance monitoring arrangements including undertaking an assessment of your regulatory footprint and putting in place a Compliance Risk Assessment (‘CRA’) to reflect appropriate regulations, risks, gaps and mitigants.
  • Complaints Handling
    Undertaking a review of the firm’s complaints handling process related to potential suitability failings including the review of a sample of complaints.
  • Training
    Providing customized training to senior management and staff to highlight their responsibility with regards to compliance with regulations.
  • Governance
    Assessing, reviewing and/or drafting governance frameworks including management information templates to committees and wider senior management.
  • Change management
    Designing, managing and implementing change programs including the firm’s approach to regulatory compliance.
  • Ongoing Compliance Support
    Providing ad-hoc compliance support as required to the firm on a wide range of topics and themes, including suitability.

Providing ad-hoc compliance support as required to the firm on a wide range of topics and themes, including suitability

Related Team

Connect with us


See all servicesStay Ahead with Kroll

Valuation

Valuation

Valuation of businesses, assets and alternative investments for financial reporting, tax and other purposes.

Cyber Risk

Cyber Risk

Incident response, digital forensics, breach notification, managed detection services, penetration testing, cyber assessments and advisory.

Compliance and Regulation

Compliance and Regulation

End-to-end governance, advisory and monitorship solutions to detect, mitigate and remediate security, legal, compliance and regulatory risk.

Corporate Finance and Restructuring

Corporate Finance and Restructuring

M&A advisory, restructuring and insolvency, debt advisory, strategic alternatives, transaction diligence and independent financial opinions.

Investigations and Disputes

Investigations and Disputes

World-wide expert services and tech-enabled advisory through all stages of diligence, forensic investigation, litigation, disputes and testimony.

Digital Technology Solutions

Digital Technology Solutions

Enriching our professional services, our integrated software platform helps clients discover, quantify and manage risk in the corporate and private capital market ecosystem.

Business Services

Business Services

Expert provider of complex administrative solutions for capital events globally. Our services include claims and noticing administration, debt restructuring and liability management services, agency and trustee services and more.

Environmental, Social and Governance

Environmental, Social and Governance

Advisory and technology solutions, including policies and procedures, screening and due diligence, disclosures and reporting and investigations, value creation, and monitoring.

Return to top