FCA Consumer Duty and fraud claims

The Consumer Duty sets a higher standard than previous regulations. Banks must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers across four areas: products and services, price and value, consumer understanding, and consumer support.

In the context of fraud, this means banks must have effective systems to prevent foreseeable harm, provide clear warnings, and treat customers fairly when handling complaints.

Banks are expected to prevent foreseeable harm. If a pattern of transactions is consistent with a known fraud type — such as multiple increasing payments to a new payee, or payments to known high-risk platforms — the bank should intervene.

Failure to detect and act on foreseeable fraud patterns is a breach of Consumer Duty that strengthens your claim.

When handling a fraud complaint, banks must treat you fairly and deliver a fair outcome. Applying gross negligence criteria incorrectly, failing to consider vulnerability, or making decisions inconsistent with the PSR framework may all breach Consumer Duty.

The Consumer Duty gives an additional legal argument beyond the PSR rules themselves, and is particularly useful for cases that are borderline under the standard PSR criteria.