Three years into Consumer Duty, UX has become a regulatory issue
Consumer Duty turns three this year, and the FCA's enforcement activity is no longer theoretical. With 11 open investigations and hundreds of supervisory interventions, firms need more than policies. They need UX evidence.
When the FCA introduced Consumer Duty in July 2023, firms understandably focused on implementation. Policies were updated, governance frameworks were strengthened, and annual Board reports became part of the regulatory calendar.
In its latest Enforcement Watch 2 publication, the FCA confirmed 11 open enforcement investigations into potential Consumer Duty breaches. While it has not yet announced fines specifically relating to Consumer Duty, it has increasingly relied on supervisory action, including Voluntary Requirements (VREQs) that restrict firms from accepting new customers, taking on new investments, or continuing certain activities while concerns are investigated and addressed.
The FCA isn't specifically investigating user interfaces, but many of the decisions that influence those outcomes are made within digital customer journeys, making UX an increasingly important source of regulatory evidence.
Consumer Duty has entered a new phase
The FCA always said it wouldn't rush into enforcement. Firms needed time to embed the new requirements and demonstrate they had placed customer outcomes at the heart of decision-making. That grace period has now passed.
In its latest Enforcement Watch newsletter, the FCA confirmed it has 11 open investigations spanning insurance, wealth management, pensions, consumer investments, peer-to-peer lending and claims management. It also revealed that around 30 skilled person reviews have referenced Consumer Duty and that it carried out 382 supervisory interventions during the last financial year.
The focus is no longer on preparing for Consumer Duty. It's on demonstrating, with objective evidence, that firms are delivering good customer outcomes.
Real-world example: Peer-to-peer lending platform
The FCA's ongoing investigation into a peer-to-peer lending platform provides a clear example of how Consumer Duty increasingly overlaps with digital UX. The investigation centres on misleading or unclear communications and financial promotions that may have prevented customers from making informed investment decisions.
This isn't simply a question of whether information was available. It's about whether digital journeys communicate products clearly enough for customers to understand them and make informed decisions. Under Consumer Duty, firms need to consider what customers agree to and how digital customer journeys influence decisions. Journeys that create unrealistic expectations, make important information difficult to find, or exploit behavioural biases may create foreseeable harm.
For UX teams, this reinforces the importance of testing whether customers can find, understand and act on key information rather than simply optimising for engagement or conversion.
Aligning UX to the four Consumer Duty outcomes
Consumer Duty is built around four outcomes:
Products and Services
Price and Value
Consumer Understanding
Consumer Support
Each outcome can be linked to UX research methods that generate objective evidence to support regulatory expectations.
Consumer Duty outcome | UX research methods | What UX teams can evidence |
|---|---|---|
Products & Services | Discovery workshops, customer interviews, journey mapping. | Evidence the product is designed around the needs, characteristics and objectives of its target market. |
Price & Value | Task-based usability testing, customer interviews. | Evidence customers understand costs and benefits, and perceive the product as offering fair value. |
Consumer Understanding | Comprehension testing, first-click testing, content reviews. | Evidence customers can locate, understand and act on key information before making decisions. |
Consumer Support | Accessibility audits, usability testing of support journeys. | Evidence customers can access help, complete key tasks and resolve issues without unnecessary friction. |
Vulnerable customers remain under the spotlight
The FCA continues to emphasise that vulnerability isn't a niche consideration. Anyone can become vulnerable through illness, bereavement, financial difficulty or reduced digital confidence, and many of the current investigations reference foreseeable harm, customer support and poorer outcomes for vulnerable customers.
This reinforces an important point: inclusive design isn't simply about meeting accessibility standards. It's about ensuring every customer can successfully complete their journey regardless of their circumstances.
The opportunity for firms and how we can help
Three years after Consumer Duty came into force, it's clear that governance needs to be supported by objective evidence. Firms increasingly need to demonstrate that customers understand their products, receive fair value and can complete journeys without unnecessary friction or foreseeable harm.
UX research such as usability testing, accessibility reviews and journey analysis all provide measurable evidence that can support Consumer Duty obligations while helping organisations improve customer experiences.
At Indulge, we help financial services firms generate that evidence through UX research and our UXDuty journey analysis platform, which identifies friction, assesses customer journeys against Consumer Duty principles and produces prioritised findings and recommendations.
As enforcement activity continues to increase, firms that can evidence good customer outcomes through research and real customer journeys are likely to be in a much stronger position.