Did you know that we forget a huge amount of what we learn, and even when we do something on a regular basis, we manage to develop bad habits, forget key things, and even change facts to fiction? The brain is an amazing thing, but what it isn’t is foolproof or perfect.
Case in point, when Jeff asks me to contribute an article for the magazine, I am always happy to do so and usually complete the task well in advance. It’s a bit like doing your homework when you are at school. Get it sorted early and free up your mind and time for more fun activities. (No offence, Jeff!)
Anyway, this time I completely forgot! Much to Jeff’s huge amusement, I received an email like: “So, Ho, Ho, Ho, Elephants do forget…” Actually, Jeff, they (elephants) appear not to, but the Chairman of Elephants Don’t Forget, despite putting on a few kilos in the Christmas party season, would never pass muster as an elephant and therefore certainly does forget! Which just goes to show, we all need a helping hand (trunk) from Clever Nelly to ensure we learn and retain the important things in our work life!
Over the past couple of years, Jeff has persuaded me to try my hand as Nostradamus and, not entirely surprisingly, I wasn’t very good! My argument being: if I could accurately predict what was going to happen in the dynamic world of Financial Services in 2026, I wouldn’t be Chairman of Elephants Don’t Forget – I would be Chairman of Ladbrokes!
Have you really put the consumer at the centre of your decision-making radar? And perhaps more tellingly, can you prove it?
Given we have now established I am no stranger to getting things wrong, I have no ego associated with my failure to predict 2025. Anyway, you be the judge: here is my prediction from January 2025: https://www.t-cnews.com/consumer-duty/nostradamus-2025/
I take a lot of sentiment analysis and mood music type stuff from our hugely successful webinar programme. 👏😂🥂❤️… you either know or you don’t! Joking aside, if you aren’t registered then you need to get on it.
In 2025, we had 15k+ registrations and we’re probably the number one thought leadership channel for Consumer Duty in the UK. No other platform or brand gets the consistent engagement and participation we get.
So, for attendees and non-attendees, what has 2025 taught us?
I think three things:
- Vulnerability
What a surprise! Yup, this will remain a focus of the regulator, probably now and forever, as the FCA strives to ensure those less able receive the same good outcomes as those who are not currently presenting as vulnerable.
My take on this is that the desk-based heavy lifting stuff is probably vexing firms more than the frontline, which runs counter to most other issues. In many instances, firms report the frontline know their stuff (sometimes true, certainly is if they work with https://www.elephantsdontforget.com/ and our lovely friends at debt charity https://moneyadvicetrust.org/), but this is more about: can the firm substantiate that they have appropriately considered the needs of vulnerable customers in all product offerings and through all channels? And then… can they evidence that good outcomes are the same for vulnerable consumers as they are for non-vulnerable consumers? This, it would appear, is a bigger challenge.
- Embedding Consumer Duty
Reviewing the FCA commentary, the regulator is of the opinion that many firms have done a good job translating the Consumer Duty legislation into the “structure” (my word, by the way) of their enterprise. For example, the legislation is pretty clear about Price & Value, and most sensible firms would have robustly tested their products and services against a P&V test.
Clearly, some in the wealth management sector fell on their face in month one. The rest of the market, I think, learned from that stumble/fall and took rapid action where required. Now that work is done, too many C-Suite executives are relaxing into a BAU mindset. “Job done, box ticked, crack on, chaps.” This is almost the opposite scenario of vulnerability, mentioned above.
We hear all too often in the comments section of our webinars that compliance and risk professionals are bemoaning the lack of C-Suite support for the spirit of Consumer Duty. You may have heard me speak on this legalese before: “Spirit and letter of the law.”
It is all too easy to tick boxes and assume Consumer Duty is “done.” My take on this piece of legislation is that it is all about the culture. It is, therefore, all about the spirit. That is not to say you do not need to comply with the letter of the law; rather, the true emphasis is the spirit.
Have you really embedded Consumer Duty in your culture? Have you really put the consumer at the centre of your decision-making radar? And perhaps more tellingly, can you prove it?
Nostradamus time: No. For far too many firms, this is simply not true. Boxes have been ticked, Annual Board Reports filed, and a consensus of “job done, move on” prevails – and I think the regulator knows it.
We spent most of this year asking the FCA for guidance and input on cultural assessment so we could build a derivative of Clever Nelly that solved the problem. We achieved this, by the way, with the launch of Consumer Duty Insight (CDi) – which you can find out more about here: https://info.elephantsdontforget.com/consumer-duty-insight-get-in-touch
One thing the regulator is rather interested in is how firms can evidence they have genuinely embedded Consumer Duty in their business and that their culture, which perhaps was once too profit-first, has transitioned to consumer-first. And, ideally, the FCA would love a mechanism that meaningfully benchmarked that outcome. To be frank, that was what took us the most time in the development of our CDi product; but I think we got there.
Have you really embedded Consumer Duty throughout your organisation, and can you evidence it?
- Customer Detriment Through Poor Service
According to the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) July 2025 report, after three years of decline or stagnation, CSAT in the UK has improved – and the improvement is seen in almost all sectors.
However, it is noticeable that the difference between the highest-rated organisations and others relates to measures of emotional connection and customer ethos, as well as efficient experiences. In fact, the biggest gaps between the top 50 rated organisations and others are for complaint handling, measures of customer ethos and emotional connection, and the incidence of right-first-time experiences or problems.
I have repeatedly drawn the attention of attendees (of our webinar series) to the fact that the regulator is now a “data-driven entity”. In the past, when the regulator wanted evidence of a firm’s performance, they asked the firm in question to provide it. This is no longer the case, as the FCA now has considerable technical capability to scrape and aggregate data from the internet. If they want data, they can go and get it for themselves without any consultation, permission, or warning. The area that is easiest for them to do so is CSAT – so you don’t want to be an outlier in this area.
Customer Support is one of the four Pillars of Consumer Duty, and as a sector, there are literally tens of millions of ‘moments of truth’ occurring every day when a member of staff interacts with a customer. Despite the best efforts of technology and management, most of these interactions will be “freestyle”. That is not to say there is no structure or governance; rather, despite the structure and governance, the quality of the outcome is undoubtedly correlated to the in-role competence of the employee.
This is a data point that only a very small percentage of the market can even credibly measure, let alone optimise and maintain. I would suggest that one of the characteristics of 2026 will be a material increase in the FCA flexing its data management capability, comparing and contrasting publicly available CSAT measures, and intervening.
Now, the legislation doesn’t say you have to be perfect. So, when the time comes, if your firm is on the receiving end of the regulator asking for more information (s165) regarding your Customer Support practices, what evidence will you present? Will it be perfect training records and ‘boxes ticked’ compliance with the letter of the law, or will you be able to evidence that you are on a journey and are able to measure and monitor the elements that mark the spirit of the legislation?
I know where I would rather be.
Conclusion
Firms are variously failing to achieve, and definitely failing to evidence, that they are living the spirit of the Consumer Duty. Your people are the lifeblood of your business, yet firms appear to have engaged in a race to the bottom for the lowest cost training in the least amount of time, losing sight of the actual objective: competent staff with the right tools and resilience to deliver consistently great customer outcomes.
Will 2026 be the year when the FCA finally sends a ‘Dear CEO’ letter about workplace Training and Competence (T&C) practices? Probably not. However, if the FCA wants to accelerate the adoption and embedding of the Consumer Duty, they might be well advised to do so.
