Private Clients - Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) - Policy
Introduction to TCF
The Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) initiative is a key priority of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK watchdog for financial services, to help promote the fair treatment of customers and to build and restore confidence in the financial services industry.
Merchant Securities Mission Statement and Commitment to TCF:
Our ethos is: "to build and be a part of a company that we would wish to be a client of and recommend to friends or members of our family"
Merchant Securities' aim to deliver a service which treats its clients fairly; ensuring suitability of products and services and in providing suitable advice that meets a client's needs and circumstances.
The FSA has published 6 desired TCF “outcomes” (reproduced below) that all firms are expected to deliver. At Merchant Securities, we have embraced these outcomes and they are embedded into the way we operate to help us deliver a fair service to all clients:
OUTCOME 1: Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of their customers is central to the corporate culture.
OUTCOME 2: Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market have been designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly.
OUTCOME 3: Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.
OUTCOME 4: Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances.
OUTCOME 5: Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is both of an acceptable standard and also as they have been led to expect.
OUTCOME 6: Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint
At Merchant Securities we have established and enhanced the fair treatment of customers throughout the firm on a continuous and successful basis through our business strategy, employee training and corporate culture.
Contact us
If customers feel that we have not provided a high standard of service, or treated you fairly, please let us know. In particular, we are dedicated to dealing with any complaints and resolving them in an efficient manner as stated in our Complaints Handling Procedures.
If you would like more information about our approach to TCF, please contact us – our contact details are on the home page of our website.
FSA information on TCF
If you are interested in reading more about the FSA’s initiatives and guidance on TCF please refer to the FSA website:
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/doing/regulated/tcf/