Trust and confidence in financial services: a strategic challenge

The purpose of the paper is to offer an analytical framework for the Treating Customers Fairly initiative of the Financial Services Authority. The TCF agenda is set in the context of theory of consumer behaviour. The central theme is that retail financial transactions are fundamentally different from most other economic transactions made by retail consumers and to an extent that means the consumer needs to have Trust and Confidence in the products purchased and the suppliers of financial products and services. A distinction is made between different types of products and also between the degree of need for Trust and the extent to which the consumer actually does have Trust and Confidence when making decisions. The inculcation of Trust and Confidence needs to become a central strategic issue in financial firms and can be addressed by initiatives of collective self regulation rather than more prescriptive regulation.