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It is important that your customers who may require support, receive it at all stages in the lifecycle of their agreement. This includes at  application stage and once the agreement is live or even when the customer is not taking finance at all.
 
Good outcomes benefit both you and your customer.
 
In addition, as a firm regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), failure to treat customers fairly may result in regulatory sanction.
 
This information below has been provided to help, support and guide you understand your obligations and what you can do to  support customers.

FCA Guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers

Full details on the FCA Guidance can be found on the FCA website

As an FCA regulated firm, actions that the FCA expect you to take include:

  • Understand the needs of vulnerable customers
  • Ensure your staff have the necessary skills and capability to support vulnerable customers
  • Taking practical action including areas around customer service and communication you have with your customers
  • Monitor and evaluate – Implement appropriate processes to evaluate where you have not met the needs of vulnerable consumers, so that you can make improvements as well as producing and reviewing management information on the outcomes you are delivering for vulnerable consumers.

Northridge Intermediary Support and Guidance

Designed to compliment your own internal processes and procedures, this guidance is intended to provide some practical steps that you can take should you have a customer / potential customer who may require additional support in relation to their application with Northridge and/or the ongoing management of their Northridge account.

Money Advice Trust (Decision making when purchasing a vehicle)

The Money Advice Trust created a support guide (“Decision-making when purchasing a vehicle”) which is tailored specifically for motor dealers.

This guide will help dealers:

  • meet your legal/regulatory duties (including the Consumer Duty)
  • treat every customer fairly
  • improve your approach to sales.

It also includes some case study scenarios.

Finance & Leasing Association / Specialist Automotive Finance (SAF)

Vulnerability a guide for lending – Finance & Leasing Association (fla.org.uk) will provide access to the FLA’s Vulnerable Customer Guidance. This Guide provides focus, insights & tools for working with customers in a vulnerable situation and explains how customers in vulnerable situations can be better identified and supported during applications for credit

This guide aims to provide:

  • practical detailed guidance which complements CONC
  • data on how often customers with decision-making limitations are encountered
  • insights into perceived challenges and positive practice on this key issue

Specialist Automotive Finance (SAF)

The FLA Lending code requires that its members, including Northridge, can only deal with dealerships where every customer-facing staff member has successfully passed the annual SAF Expert assessment (or recognised SAF Equivalent training program).

The SAF Expert training, contains a module on ‘Vulnerable Customers and Mental Capacity’. A link to the training material, which includes this module can be found on the SAF Expert webpage.