Consumer Duty Policy

Consumer Duty Policy Version 1 – 15/07/2023 TM

Introduction:

The Financial Conduct Authority, (The FCA), have set out a new principle, Consumer Duty, with the intention of creating a significant shift in the standard of care that firms give to their customers. The new Duty sets the standard of care that all firms must give to their customers in retail financial markets. The Duty applies to all products & services offered to retail customers & how firms such as ours, influence customer outcomes.

The new Consumer Principle requires: “A firm must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.”

A higher standard of care is needed, to ensure customers receive a positive outcome every time we engage with them. Our aim is to help our customers to achieve their financial goals & objectives when it comes to looking for their new vehicles & leasing agreements. To do this, we need to clearly identify their needs & requirements, ascertain their financial suitability for the products & services that we can offer, identify any vulnerabilities & protect from any potential harm and ensure we work within a culture that ensures our customers receive a first class experience every time.

What all this means to our customers: Consumer Duty is a positive step forward for our business and customers. It ensures that delivering good customer outcomes is our top priority every time we engage. Our intention is to increase the level of customer protection and help to raise industry standards within the Motor Industry and Financial Services.

Within this policy, we commit to:

1 – Act in good faith toward retail customers

2 – Avoid foreseeable harm to retail customers

3 – Enable & support retail customers to pursue their financial objectives

We commit to putting the interests of our customers at the forefront of our business, with the focus being on delivery positive customer outcomes. We commit to only provide products & services that are suitable to the markets they are targeted at, and we will monitor the performance of these products & services to ensure they remain suitable & offer fair value. A Distribution Assessment & Fair Value Outcome statement has been produced for each product or service detailing what we have done and will continue to do.

We commit to communicating & engaging with our customers sufficiently to allow them to make properly informed decisions. We have a comprehensive sales process, which must be followed by all staff engaged in promoting our products & services, which has been designed to ensure that a through fact-finding exercise is carried out to ensure all aspects of customer needs are considered and allows sufficient time for reflection prior to any decision making. We commit to considering any customer vulnerabilities to ensure they do not enter into any agreement they do not understand. We commit to outing the needs of our customers at every stage of our service & the lifecycle of the products & services that we offer. We commit to actively monitoring the performance of our products & services as well as our staff through a thorough checking process, including customer feedback and regular performance reviews to ensure our customers are experiencing positive outcomes. We commit to maintaining open dialogue with our regulators, funders & suppliers to ensure we are collectively sharing feedback & development and to ensure we are working together to ensure we deliver positive outcomes.

We commit to providing a level of support that meets our customer requirements from initial enquiry, through to the end of their financial contracts and return of vehicles. We will do this with regular contact points, with an open & transparent process if they wish to make a general enquiry, a complaint, or any changes to their contracts. We commit to ensuring our customers do not experience any unreasonable or unnecessary barriers in achieving their financial goals & to not expose them to any unreasonable or unexpected costs.

Further Materials: More details on the process changes we have made within Consumer Duty, may be found on our website: www.skyfleetcarleasing.co.uk or by following the below links:

https://dpleasing.co.uk/customer-journey

https://dpleasing.co.uk/business-contract-hire-fact-sheet

https://dpleasing.co.uk/personal-contract-hire-fact-sheet

https://dpleasing.co.uk/finance-lease-fact-sheet

https://dpleasing.co.uk/no-quibble-cancellation-policy