We have been serving regulated clients since 2002, supporting them through a period of two transformative decades for the UK regulation.

In this blog, we look back briefly at some of our highlights and salute our clients and people.

Since 2002 we have worked with our clients to help them support their customers. In some of our first projects we helped Life Companies and Banks deal with one of the first major remediation programmes of the new century, wrongly sold Endowment Mortgages.

Since then we have helped firms with a range of remediation programmes including pensions switches and transfers and more recently helping banks remediate customers in mortgage arrears.

Complex remediation projects need technical expertise and creative thinking to ensure that customers are treated fairly and firms have solutions which satisfy regulators and are operationally deliverable.

In the last two decades, the role of the risk professional has changed significantly. It has become a more complex and demanding profession with new regulators and different approaches to regulation and risk management. From ‘rules-based’ to ‘principles-based’ and ‘outcomes-based’ regulation and with the new discipline of Conduct Risk introduced in financial services, energy, telecoms, legal services and pharmaceuticals, the levels of knowledge and expertise required by risk specialists has grown exponentially.

We have delivered unique skills development and coaching programmes for risk specialists across many institutions in different sectors. We have trained and coached over 1000 risk specialists, helping them to develop their business understanding, risk expertise and advisory skills so they can support senior managers.

We have worked with large businesses in a range of sectors to transform their regulated operations including sales and customer services, complaints-handling processes and customer experience.

We have simplified policy and documentation and re-engineered processes and management information. We have developed market leading approaches to quality assurance which are unbureaucratic and clear.

Our benchmarking tools and guides have been used by managers in financial services, energy and pharmaceuticals.

We have trained over 15,000 people, helping them understand complex products and new regulation and how to treat customers fairly and efficiently. From largely classroom-based training in 2002, our programmes are now fully blended, including self-study, e-learning, classroom, coaching and professional qualifications.

We have developed the first ever Conduct Risk business simulation for use in management education to help managers improve their decision-making and risk management.

We have also developed the first ever Conduct Culture benchmarking survey to assess how well your conduct culture is embedding with your people.

We have won many awards over our fifteen years including Best Training Provider and Best Consultancy. In 2016, we were a finalist in the British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards with our client British Gas.

Perhaps our proudest moment came last year when we won the award for Best Customer Service throughout the regulatory marketplace (covering consultancies, training and recruitment/resourcing firms). We were so proud because this award was voted for by our clients, whose opinion we value so much.

We work with many or the most recognised and largest regulated clients. What marks them out is their passion for improving their customer services – while they know they don’t always deliver as well as they and their clients would like, they invest in strengthening their businesses and educating their people.

This is often not easy and we thank them for asking us to partner them and being open to our suggestions and advice as well as, however hard it can sometimes feel, maintaining their integrity and perspective.

Our people are the secret to our success. We have invested in building a market-leading network of 500 of the best specialists including trainers, product specialists, process analysts, risk and regulatory experts and programme managers. Above all, they all recognise that what makes us different is that we know it’s not just having the right answer that counts, it’s our relationships with our clients that leads them to trust our advice.

We select them carefully – less than 1 in 3 of the people who apply to work with us make it through our assessments. We thank them for nearly two decades of energy, expertise and commitment.

While we don’t know what the future holds for us or our clients, we can be sure it will be more change, increased regulation and personal challenge. The Conduct of Business agenda is expanding, customers and politicians expect more from regulated businesses in all sectors. The increased focus on senior management and leaders’ accountability means the spotlight will only intensify.

We will continue to innovate in our services and solutions, and to collaborate with other ‘best in sector’ providers for the benefit of our clients and their customers.

Thanks to everyone who has joined us on an amazing ride!

Look out for more bulletins and events celebrating our fifteenth anniversary. If you would like to know more about our services, contact us directly.