Company: BCS
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000312069-25-000114
Chunk: 490

Company: BARCLAYS PLC
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form: 20-F
Chunk 490
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 digital access, culture, and diversity and inclusion The FCA’s Consumer Duty is now in force for new and existing products or services that are open to sale or renewal, as well as closed products and services. The duty sets higher expectations for the standard of care that firms provide to retail customers and impacts all aspects of Barclays' retail businesses, including every retail customer journey, product and service as well as Barclays' relationships with partners, suppliers and third parties. This has resulted in significant implementation costs and there are also continued higher ongoing costs for the industry as a result of extensive monitoring and evidential requirements. In setting out its strategy for supervision of the retail banking industry in 2025, the FCA has reiterated the importance of the Consumer Duty as a continued priority for the FCA and its expectations for firms to embed the Consumer Duty into their culture and purpose. Other areas of strategic priority for the FCA’s supervision include the fair treatment of customers in financial difficulty, access for customers to payment accounts and banking services (discussed further below), compliance with operational resilience rules, the continued management of financial crime and fraud risks, and the role of banks in developing sustainable finance offerings and the importance of ensuring that sustainability- related claims associated with products are clear, fair and not misleading. In the UK, the wider financial industry may be impacted by the October 2024 Court of Appeal judgments on commission arrangements in the motor finance industry, subject to the result of the appeals of those judgments to the Supreme Court, and to the FCA’s ongoing review of the motor finance market. In December 2024, the FCA announced an extension to the time motor finance firms have to handle complaints on lender commissions until after 4 December 2025, following on from the Court of Appeal’s judgments in Johnson v FirstRand Bank, Wrench v FirstRand Bank and Hopcroft v Close Brothers Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 1282 . The decisions in these cases could, subject to these appeals, impact the availability and terms of financing, risk of future claims, and the likelihood of a FCA consumer redress scheme. There could also be wider market and industry implications of the judgments and/or the appeals, which could adversely affect the Group’s business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. Barclays' regulators have enhanced their focus on the promotion of cultural values as a key area for banks. The UK regulators have also begun focusing on diversity and inclusion in financial services firms, with the PRA and FCA having published a consultation on the introduction of a