A bitter pill to swallow

The Financial Services Authority's (FSA) latest dose of regulation arrived last year in the form of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF), with firms expected to be at the implementation stage of compliance by March 2007. However, unlike previous prescriptive regulation, TCF is at the vanguard of the FSA's drive to implement a more principles-based approach to compliance.

The requirement for firms to treat their customers fairly is firmly rooted in the FSA's Principles for Businesses. Principle 6