FCA will report back on ABI call for renewal clarity next year

The FCA has welcomed the ABI’s call for improved transparency around dual pricing and said it will consider it alongside existing work it is doing in this area.

An FCA spokeswoman said: “We welcome the ABI’s contribution to the debate on helping consumers make better decisions at renewal time.  We already have various pieces of work underway in this area and will continue to work with the industry as this develops.”

The FCA has already started work using behavioural economics to assess consumer behaviour when faced with different scenarios, with results expected to be published in 2015.

In a speech in June, FCA director Christopher Woolard confirmed the regulator had already started trials to analyse the performance of including different renewal information in communications to customers.

“We have started to conduct significant research into how smarter disclosures in renewal letters impacts decision-making,” he said. “We want to understand how consumers act in response to different types of information and are using behavioural analysis to help understand how different information in renewal letters can prompt consumers to make more effective choices.  

“To do this we are working with a small number of firms to run a series of randomised control trials with modified renewal letters.”