Eoin Farrington
COO, Close Brothers Motor Finance
The Consumer Protection Code (CPC) will not only ensure fair customer outcomes in Ireland’s motor finance and wider financial services market. Crucially, it’ll make finances clearer, safer and more sustainable for Irish consumers.
At Close Brothers Motor Finance, customer outcomes drive us. Good financial services thrive on positive customer experiences, so the long-awaited Consumer Protection Code (CPC) earlier this spring was welcome news.
Decoding the CPC
The CPC is the Government’s flagship financial services consumer protection regulation. It was originally introduced in 2007 but has been updated several times. The latest version reinforces financial services consumer protection in Ireland and improves customer outcomes.
A key objective is to bring greater transparency. We all, no doubt, experienced opening a letter from a finance business only to find it full of jargon and difficult to understand.
The CPC aims to stop that, calling upon financial services providers to focus on clarity in communications. This is especially the case for consumers in vulnerable circumstances, who will receive enhanced support.
What to expect from your financial services provider
Financial services businesses across Ireland — including our team at Close Brothers Motor Finance — have been working hard in recent months to ensure systems and processes comply with the new regulations.
A key plank has been the revision of customer communications to bring more clarity, accessibility and transparency to how firms interact with customers. Likewise, customer journeys are being strengthened to ensure protection and positive outcomes at every step.
A key objective is to bring greater transparency
Good customer outcomes aren’t just about how firms talk to their customers, but also the way they listen. So, complaint and error handling processes are also being enhanced to ensure firms can be more responsive to customer needs.
Our team at Close Brothers Motor Finance has long placed customer outcomes at the heart of what we do. This is why, for us, our 4.8 Trustpilot is more than just a number; it’s a daily reminder of what good customer service looks like. And it’s why we recently moved from having an external company provide our customer service support to bringing customer service in-house and recruiting our own internal customer service team based in our Dublin office, putting service at the core of our team and close to our customers.
