In the current economic climate, treating customers fairly (TCF) is all the more relevant and will continue to be a requirement for us all.  How we measure progress in the implementation of the principles, take action to improve procedures and customer service, and monitor remedial action will be the challenge for many of us.

As service providers we need to demonstrate that we understand what the fair treatment of customers is, how we can achieve this at all times and ensure that any errors are promptly corrected and lessons learnt.  We should continually measure our performance against customer fairness issues that are materially relevant to our business and act upon the results in a constructive manner.  We need to keep asking: are we delivering a fair outcome for our clients and their customers?

The key principles of TCF are that a firm must:

• Conduct its business with integrity, due skill, care and diligence.
• Take reasonable care to organise its affairs responsibly and effectively with adequate risk management.
• Pay due regard to the information needs of its clients' and customers, ensuring that information is communicated to them in a way which is clear, concise and not misleading.
• Manage conflicts of interest fairly, both between itself and its customers, and between a customer and another client.
• Take reasonable care to ensure that suitability of its advice and decisions for any customer.

Firms must be able to demonstrate that they are consistently delivering fair outcomes to consumers and taking responsibility for ensuring that the firm and staff, at all levels, deliver the consumer outcomes relevant to their business through establishing an appropriate culture.