RegTech firms urge stronger focus on customer outcomes

By Milan Rojan

A customer vulnerability specialist has said financial services firms are facing growing expectations to demonstrate positive customer outcomes as regulatory scrutiny around consumer protection continues to evolve.

The company has said the focus across the sector is shifting beyond regulatory implementation towards evidencing how firms identify, support and monitor customers, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances.

Andrew Gething, Managing Director at MorganAsh, said firms are increasingly expected to take a proactive approach to customer vulnerability and use reliable data to demonstrate that their products and services deliver fair outcomes.

“The focus is moving beyond whether firms have implemented Consumer Duty to whether they can evidence consistently good customer outcomes,” he said. “With increasing regulatory intervention and a rise in Consumer Duty-related whistleblowing, expectations on all fronts have never been clearer.”

MorganAsh has said organisations are increasingly turning to digital tools to strengthen customer vulnerability management while improving compliance and operational efficiency. The company has believed technology can help firms collect higher-quality customer data, build a better understanding of individual needs and provide more tailored support.

“For too long, some firms have viewed Consumer Duty primarily as a regulatory obligation,” Gething said. “The next phase is all about recognising its wider potential.”

He added that firms investing in digitally enabled customer vulnerability management could gain commercial as well as operational benefits by delivering products, services and support that better reflect customers’ needs.

MorganAsh has provided the MorganAsh Resilience System (MARS), a digital platform designed to help banks, insurers, advisers and other financial services firms assess, manage and monitor customer vulnerability. The company has said the platform has supported organisations in embedding customer vulnerability management into their compliance processes while improving the consistency of customer assessments.

The comments have reflected the growing role of RegTech solutions in helping financial institutions strengthen governance, improve customer engagement and meet evolving regulatory expectations through data-driven processes.