The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is “disappointed” with the way some firms have supported customers who were the victims of fraud.

A review by the authority identified areas in which firms could do more to support fraud victims including strengthening their systems designed to detect and prevent fraud in the first place.

The FCA identified a lack of focus by many firms in delivering good consumer outcomes and said some organisations were not fully considering characteristics of customer vulnerability when making decisions about fraud claims and complaints.

The authority’s review also identified poor complaint handling, including financial services companies often taking too long to respond, as a recurrent issue.

It added that customers who sought help after a fraud event were in some cases provided with decision letters that were sometimes “unclear, confusing, or included unhelpful and, on occasion, accusatory language.”

“We are already working with firms in our review to strengthen their approach,” the FCA said. “We expect all payment service providers to use our findings to inform what more they can do to detect, manage and reduce fraud and losses more effectively.”

It added: “Customer treatment must also be improved, including how complaints are handled, to deliver consistently good consumer outcomes in line with the Consumer Duty.”

The FCA also recently outlined concerns about some of the cryptoasset promotions it had observed since introducing new crypto advertising rules on 8 October.

The authority said issues included promotions making claims about the safety, security or ease of using cryptoasset services without highlighting the risk involved, risk warnings not being visible enough, and firms failing to provide customers with adequate information on the risks associated to specific products being promoted.

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