The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority is to develop a set of unified codes of conduct that will apply to all financial services firms operating in the State. ...
The codes will be introduced following a widespread consultation process which begins today (Monday 15 March). Submissions received will feed into a review that the Financial Services Regulator is currently undertaking on existing codes with a view to introducing the unified codes early next year. A consultation paper inviting submissions from the public, consumer groups and the financial services industry is published today. The consultation paper, a PDF document, is [broken link removed]
The closing date for submissions is 14 May 2004.
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Among the issues raised in the consultation paper are:
· the merits of a principles-based or detailed rules approach
· applying codes that focus either on the provider, or the service / product
· protection against unsolicited contact, or 'cold calling'
· appropriate complaints procedures
· disclosures in advertisements
· providing detailed reasons for loan approvals
· disclosing transparent details of financial products
· the role of voluntary codes.
During the first half of this year, the Financial Services Regulator will also be consulting publicly on a number of other consumer protection issues including tracker bonds, competency requirements for sales staff, commission structures and switching accounts.