Vulnerable Customers

Vulnerable customer training courses should be delivered by someone who knows what they’re talking about. With over 20 years of training experience in financial services, our trainer is well-placed to support you; with this topic and many other compliance-related topics. He is a former Head of Education for HSBC covering the UK and Europe, responsible for regulatory and financial crime-related compliance learning. His time at HSBC was during intense scrutiny from regulators and government functions during the bank’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement.

Other roles include leading the Monitoring and Testing programme for a UK Wealth Manager, and Senior Vice President responsible for Global Risk & Compliance training at a US-based bank. He also worked in the Insurance Firms division at the Financial Conduct Authority (in the FSA days) where he was the divisional expert for the rules and outcomes required under the Training & Competence handbook.

Since leaving HSBC, he has worked with the compliance, HR and operational teams of firms to enhance their regulatory understanding, as well as delivering content across private equity firms, investment houses, banks and wealth managers. Our trainer regularly provides core programs for TISA (The Investing and Savings Alliance) and the Investment Association.

Our vulnerable customer training course director is a former Investment Management Association Training & Education Committee member and won the Thomson Reuters award for “Most Effective Compliance Training at a Regulated Firm” in 2010.

• Take forward practical measures to help your firm deal with vulnerable customers confidently and effectively.
• Understand the FCA’s expectations on how firms are expected to serve vulnerable customers and organise themselves to do this consistently.
• To recognise good practices and simultaneously avoid poor practices.
• To recognise the linkages between the design and marketing of our products and services and how they relate to our vulnerable customer experience – in other words, joined-up thinking.
• Understanding how we skill our staff to recognise vulnerability.
• To highlight some of the discussion models available and other sources of industry best practice.
• To be able to review your vulnerable customer procedures, determine if they are fit for purpose and deliver the right outcomes.
• Be able to identify the regulatory developments around vulnerability from 2015 onwards to better contextualise actions required today.
• Understand the role of the Vulnerability Task Force and how they help us.

• We are well aware of how FCA expectations have changed alongside the best practices and mandatory updates.
• We have served clients of all shapes and sizes in the financial sector and are fully aware of the obligations of a regulated firm and what is expected from them by the regulator.
• We have been delivering training for over 20 years. We are certain we know the topic as well as anyone in the marketplace.
• Our Vulnerable Customers course director is experienced as both a regulator and in training regulatory requirements across wholesale and retail financial firms. He will pass on past experiences to enhance the workshop and help bring it to life.
• We do not use academics. All our trainers are highly experienced professionals with relevant vocational experience in the real world.
• The case studies included in this vulnerable customer training enhance the learning points. They are often found to be essential in truly understanding the requirements and growing the skills to apply them.
• We are always judged by our results which speak for themselves, and previous feedback received from dealing with vulnerable customers training delegates has always been excellent.

• Dealing with vulnerable customers training is designed for those working in regulated firms. While much of the session references FCA rules, the underlying principles support effective customer support regardless of jurisdiction. First-line staff will gain value when they are dealing with clients directly or managing teams that have client interaction, overseeing the firm’s response to vulnerability, being involved in the design of training frameworks to address vulnerability responses or simply wishing to understand more.
• Second- and third-line staff who are advising risk owners or evaluating systems and controls in place to meet vulnerability requirements, will also find this vulnerable customers training valuable in ensuring appropriate coverage of their work.

Vulnerability is one of those topics where we all hope to be less impacted on a personal level, but also that we would receive appropriate care and support if we were. An increasing commitment to helping vulnerable customers in line with FCA guidance is being widely accepted as the only proper thing to do, with the regulators naturally supporting this shift. The sense for some time now is that firms need to be doing more. 

Vulnerable customer training courses are now vital for firms to ensure their staff are appropriately skilled in identifying and responding to vulnerability. They also need to ensure they are organising their business effectively with a focus on treating all their customers fairly but none more so than those experiencing vulnerability. Firms and especially senior managers should be looking at what they are doing to understand these potentially negative outcomes for vulnerable clients and the steps they are taking (or should be taking) to mitigate those.

Our vulnerable customer webinar helps participants understand what vulnerability is, how it needs to be addressed and the steps they need to take to build these approaches into a practical and sustainable operating model. It is designed to be enjoyable as well as instructional with delegate participation actively encouraged. Practical vulnerable customer examples are used to illustrate the learning points rather than leaving them as theoretical.