Aveni launches Consumer Duty Board Report to provide Board assurance

Aveni, the AI fintech business, has today launched its Consumer Duty Board Report to provide Board members with the assurance that data requirements are being met. The demands of data-first supervision and the expectations of quality and risk assurance which Consumer Duty mandates, places far greater responsibility on the Board and Aveni has designed this template to address that.

The Consumer Duty Board Report template will help companies create a board and regulator-ready report. It clearly highlights the data requirements with proposed metrics across four key areas: Product and Service; Price and Value; Consumer Understanding; and Consumer Support.  This will demonstrate whether the Consumer Duty approach is effectively being met.

The template provides guidance on the metrics to measure, the data required and the actionable insights that come from that. It also provides examples of the technologies that can be used to automate the reporting or access and analyse the data. By reporting on these metrics, it demonstrates to the regulator that action is being taken to deliver a comprehensive set of Consumer Duty KPIs and provides reassurance at Board level that the risks are being proactively managed.

Joseph Twigg, CEO of Aveni commented: “Consumer Duty is well into the implementation stage and the FCA is showing its teeth with action already being taken against non-compliant banks and building societies.   The core expectation of data-backed evidence is a responsibility across the organisation, right up to Board level. Boards should have a clear and deep understanding of what is causing harm to consumers, what they should measure to track any potential risks as well as the remedial actions taken to address these before they escalate. Our Report template has been designed to reassure Boards that the Consumer Duty-related risks are being properly assessed and that sufficient and relevant data is being fed back to all areas of the business to ensure continuous improvement.

“When we established Aveni our experience in financial services business strategy and planning was central to our drive to find solutions that could address executive and governance pain points, particularly from a regulatory perspective. We are now working with some of the largest banks, equity release and advisory firms to deliver this.

“Consumer Duty demands a greater reliance on the systematic monitoring and analytics of a much greater amount of data than ever before. This can only be done with technology such as AI and machine learning. However, we are very aware that there are multiple competing priorities at Board level, and we wanted to make this element less time-intensive, transparent and reassuring.”