Key considerations on how firms can translate FCA expectations into a clear, practical definition of “what good looks like” by evidencing real customer outcomes across training, processes, and customer journeys.
“If the FCA called tomorrow and asked for evidence of good customer outcomes, what would your firm reach for first?”
We posed this question to 470 senior financial services professionals on our recent April 2026 webinar with ‘ICA Compliance Consultancy Firm of the Year’ winners, Square 4.
- Whilst 33% said they would have ‘good outcomes evidence that could show the FCA a clear picture of outcomes’;
- 67% said they would be demonstrating ‘activity-based evidence’ in the main, which wouldn’t tell the whole story.
We also asked firms for an honest description of what their outcome MI looks like right now.
- Most firms said they ‘have data but not conclusions’; they ‘track activity but not outcomes’ and – though they can identify issues – they ‘can’t show how they fixed them’.
One of the key things for firms to really think about from this discussion was the competence of their colleagues tasked with delivering good outcomes. Square 4 – who conduct a significant amount of outcome testing in firms – confirm that “colleague failure” is the primary reason behind most poor outcomes. Staff are completing training and “passing it”, but they don’t remain competent over time to adequately support customers.
We asked participents how joined up the two disciplines of competence and outcomes testing are in their firm, just 6% said they were systematically connected. Whilst firms often view these as separate things, this e-guide unpacks why the best-performing firms have them inherently linked.
In this e-guide, we discuss:
- Why activity-based evidence is valuable – but shouldn’t be your primary source of data.
- How your firm can join up competence with outcome testing – and give senior managers and boards the insight to surface risk before it results in poor outcomes or crystallised harm.
- What firms can do to decrease the lag time of outcomes testing, remediation, and rectification work.
- How to build stronger impact-action loops to improve outcome testing and scoring.
- Why firms should prioritise data integrity over ‘sea of green’ reporting.
