Many have assumed that the Consumer Duty is a fixed piece of regulation, a tablet handed down from upon high about how to be decent to clients.

That may have been the case when the idea was first being considered but it looks like the Consumer Duty is already being looked at as the beginning of a process, not a bunch of rules set in stone. It may be starting to grow.

A good example of that came this week with news that the FCA is consulting on proposals to add combating financial crime measures to the Consumer Duty.

Of course, considering the risk of crime has always been implicitly part of Consumer Duty but with its new Consultation Paper CP24/9, the FCA wants to go a step further and enshrine in the Duty an explicit requirement for regulated firms to take into account the risk to clients from financial fraud and financial crime generally.

Generally I’m in favour of this. Embedding anti-financial crime measures in the Consumer Duty makes perfect sense.

With fraud the most numerous crime in the UK and rising rapidly in its impact, regulated firms clearly have a key role to play in fighting financial crime. It makes perfect sense to make clients aware of the risks and the warning signs when they are conducting financial transactions of any kind, whether that be dealing with a company online or seeing a financial adviser.

Rogue firms and advisers may, of course, be a bit reluctant to include warnings about financial crime for obvious reasons but no doubt this will be one more thing the FCA can keep a close eye on.

I have some sympathy, however, with regulated firms for whom this will be yet another burden related to the Consumer Duty, which is still only part rolled out. It’s being extended to legacy products from July and still only applies to new products and services until then.

If the financial crime extension goes ahead, it looks like firms will need to review their documentation and assess the risk of financial crime for clients. This will be some extra work but there is a dividend - a sensible highlighting of the risks involved with financial transactions and what to do when things go wrong.

More alert clients and customers better able to spot financial crime risk will mean a better informed customer base and so on. Quite a deterrent when it comes to financial crime where ignorance of the risks is often a factor. Educating clients always makes sense.

For once this sounds like a wise move although it does mean regulated firms will need to see the Consumer Duty as a platform for change in the future rather than a fixed point to aim for. This will likely mean more work but I suspect many readers suspected that. Further Consumer Duty extensions are not unlikely too.

However, the FCA will need to ensure that its sensible step does not come with excessive additional burdens for Financial Planners who already do quite a bit when it comes to financial crime.

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Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days.  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow @FPT_Kevin >Top Tip: Follow Financial Planning Today on Twitter / X @_FPToday for breaking news and key updates