About The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce
The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce is a newly created independent representative body covering the Personal Finance Sector. Its ultimate purpose is to promote greater UNDERSTANDING, encourage appropriate BEHAVIOURS and establish GOOD PRACTICE in respect of consumer vulnerability. Established as a Community Interest Company (CIC), it seeks to be an informed source of positive influence on policy makers, professionals and the general public alike. In doing so, we hope that professionals working across the Personal Finance Sector are increasingly seen as a ‘safe pair of hands’, especially by those who find themselves in vulnerable circumstances.
Why has it been created?
The current regulatory focus on vulnerability provides a timely opportunity as a ‘united’ profession to change public perception through the way in which we consciously deal with those in vulnerable circumstances and address perceptions or the unconscious reality of commercial conflicts of interest.
To do so, we need to find a way to collaborate across the sector and beyond, to find some basis of consistency in service delivery and understanding. It is with this in mind that The Personal Finance Society has put its support behind the creation of The Financial Vulnerability Taskforce (FVT).
The role of the Personal Finance Society
The Personal Finance Society (PFS) is the professional body for the financial advisory profession in the UK, whose role is to promote ethical behaviour, the highest standards of professionalism for technical knowledge and client service for the ultimate benefit of the profession and consumers alike.
The PFS has been instrumental in helping to create the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce, promoting the Taskforce's Charter to all who work in the personal finance sector and consumers, especially those in vulnerable circumstances.
How you can support the Taskforce
Over time our objective is to build a wider body of support for both the Taskforce Charter, its aims and objectives and programme of work, from both individuals, firms and representative bodies across the personal finance sector. Ultimately, we aim to extend the reach of the taskforce to include related professional sectors in order to encourage a collaborative approach in dealing with customers in vulnerable circumstances.
Firms across the personal finance sector can align themselves to the aims and objectives of the Taskforce by openly committing to support the 9 statements that make up the Taskforce’s Charter and downloading both an explanatory Consumer Guide, logos and support material to raise awareness amongst clients, consumers and professional contacts.