The pricing of financial products remains a commercial decision for firms, in which the Government does not seek to intervene.<\/p>
<\/p>
UK banks\u2019 and building societies\u2019 treatment of their customers is governed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in its Principles for Businesses. This includes a general requirement for firms to provide a prompt, efficient and fair service to all their customers.<\/p>
<\/p>
More broadly, protecting vulnerable customers, such as those with low digital skills, is a priority for the FCA. The FCA requires firms to identify particularly vulnerable customers, and to take these customers into consideration when designing products.<\/p>
<\/p>
Further to this, the FCA recently concluded a guidance consultation for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers. While many firms have made significant progress on this, the Treasury and the FCA want to see the fair treatment of vulnerable consumers being taken seriously by all firms so that vulnerable consumers receive consistently fair treatment.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Treasury continues to work with firms and the FCA to ensure that the needs of vulnerable customers are met.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4051", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for John Glen"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Salisbury"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "John Glen"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2020-10-08", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : {"_value" : "99001"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2020-10-08T08:14:40.797Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "14"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2020-10-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Older People: Banks"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the proportionality of the effect on older people of banks offering preferential interest rates to online-only customers.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4432", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Patrick Grady"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Glasgow North"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Patrick Grady"} ], "uin" : "99003"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }