Financial Promotions – Getting It Right

“Rather than a ‘tick-box’ approach to compliance with rules and guidance, the FCA’s threshold conditions and high level principles for businesses such as ‘treating customers fairly’ seek to put the interests of customers at the heart of every firm’s business. Having good consumer outcomes at every stage of the client journey is key. This includes: in advertising and financial promotions” Linda Woodall, FCA Director 2014 and although this may seem a while ago things haven’t changed.

How would you feel if one of your firms’ adverts appeared on the FCA’s website as one that had been banned for not being “clear, fair and not misleading”?  This is just one of the actions the regulator can take if you get your advertisements wrong, irrespective of where they appear, including social media platforms.

The FCA’s Occasional paper no. 26 released in April 2017 highlighted the ways behavioral science can help spot a misleading advert, in this highly practical workshop we use this and other guidance from the regulator to help you consider your approach to advertising and marketing strategies.  We’ll look at examples of what constitutes good and poor practice and leave delegates with an action plan of next steps.

Why getting your financial promotions right is essential?

The Course Agenda

Identify the different financial promotions within your business and who does what? i.e. how do the Three Lines of Defence work in your firm during the production of financial promotions?

The legal framework, and the regulator’s objectives and powers.

• What is a financial promotion and what other communications are in scope?
• The main statutory requirements and exemptions
• Powers of the regulator including new Financial Services and Markets Act requirements

Categorising financial promotions and other in-scope communications

• Categorising financial promotions and other communications i.e. image advertising and other marketing activities
• Relevance to business model, clients types, distribution channels and communication channels
• Syndicate exercise to recognise financial promotion types and their relevance

Essential sourcebook requirements applied to categories of financial promotion and communication

• Matching firms’ marketing items to sourcebook categories of financial promotion and communication
• Applying the key regulatory requirements to the different categories for mortgages, loans, credit cards and insurance
• Syndicate exercise – judging fair, clear and not misleading using real examples

Latest developments in regulatory approach

• How different media and advertising channels differ, i.e. website, social media
• Exercise to spot fin proms in different media
• Examples of enforcement cases
• Fair, clear and not misleading
• Prominence and stand-alone compliance
• Other hot topics and guidance from regulator

The key risks and how to manage them

• Internal controls the regulator expects to see
• Developing controls using links between compliance and other functions, including marketing and product development
• Effective internal approval processes
• Record keeping

Summary & Close

• Review of session objectives
• Review of key learning points
• Close