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Financial education and consumer protection

Updated G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection

 

Updated in 2022

About the Principles

The G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection are set out in the OECD Recommendation on High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection, which was updated in 2022.

Financial consumer protection refers to the laws, regulations and other measures generally designed to ensure fair and responsible treatment of financial consumers in their purchase and use of financial products and services and their dealings with financial services providers. 

The Principles are the leading international standard for effective and comprehensive financial consumer protection frameworks. As a high-level standard, the Principles are specifically designed and intended to be applicable to any jurisdiction and are cross-sectoral in nature (i.e. they can be applied to credit, banking, payments, insurance, pensions and investment sectors). Many countries, including OECD, G20 and FSB jurisdictions, have adopted the Principles in establishing or enhancing their financial consumer protection frameworks.

About the updated Principles

The Principles in the Recommendation were reviewed and updated, via a comprehensive process to incorporate policy developments that have evolved over the ten years since they were first adopted. This ensures that, as the leading international standard in this area, the Principles in the Recommendation continue to reflect global best practices and are forward-looking.

Building on the existing Principles, the main policy changes to the updated Principles are summarised in the inforgahic and explained below:

  • two new Principles (12 in total), i.e. “Access and Inclusion” and “Quality Financial Products” because these concepts, which are important to a holistic approach to financial consumer protection, were not covered in the original Principles.
  • three new cross-cutting themes that are relevant to the consideration and implementation of each and all of the Principles, namely “Digitalisation”, “Financial Well-being” and “Sustainable Finance”, and to include references throughout the Principles to illustrate the cross-cutting themes.
  • incorporation of high-level lessons from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the Principles such as enhanced protections for consumers who may be vulnerable and a greater focus on tackling financial scams.

History of the Principles

The Principles were originally endorsed by G20 Leaders in November 2011 and adopted by the OECD Council in the form of a Recommendation on 17 July 2012 [C(2012)102]. The Principles are included in the Financial Stability Board (“FSB”) Compendium of Standards.

 

Public Consultation

The draft updated Recommendation on High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection was available for public consultation from 28 January-25 February 2022.

Feedback Summary and Response to public consultation

 

 Note: The green text illustrates the revisions to the existing Principles.‌‌

 

 

About the process to update the Principles

Since the adoption of the Recommendation on the Principles in 2011-12, the size and nature of the consumer financial services market have grown and changed considerably, with new types of financial products, services and distribution channels. A review was conducted in 2021-22 to assess the implementation of the Principles, evaluate their continued importance and relevance and to identify trends, policy developments and approaches that warrant updates to the Principles.

In line with the conclusions of the 2022 Report on the Implementation of the Recommendation, the Principles have been updated to reflect these changes and ensure that they continue to reflect best practices and are forward-looking.

The draft Recommendation was available for public consultation from 28 January–25 February 2022. A high-level summary of the main areas of feedback received and how it was addressed in finalising the updates to the Principles is avalaible.

The update was undertaken by the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection, in collaboration with the Global Partnership on Financial Inclusion. The Task Force is responsible for developing and updating international standards on financial consumer protection, including the High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection as well as the Recommendation of the Council on Consumer Protection in the Field of Consumer Credit. The Task Force is a subsidiary body of the OECD Committee on Financial Markets.

The updated Principles were endorsed by G20 Leaders on 15-16 November 2022 and adopted by OECD Governments via the revised Recommendation on 12 December 2022.

 

Documents and links

 

 

What are OECD Recommendations and how are they used?

OECD Recommendations are adopted by the OECD’s governing body, the Council, and result from the substantive work carried out in the Organisation’s committees and their subsidiary bodies.  Recommendations generally contain high-level policy directions based on agreed good practices and aspirational goals, and serve to highlight the importance of specific work areas in the context of broader international policy-making.  They are not legally binding, but practice accords them great moral force as representing the political will of Members and non-Members having adhered to them (Adherents), on whom there is an expectation to do their utmost to fully implement them.

For more information, please consult the online Compendium of OECD Legal Instruments.

 

 

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