With as many as 1 in 2 people having a vulnerability characteristic, it’s no surprise that understanding vulnerability was a key theme running across the MRS Financial Services Conference. I was delighted to Chair the conference, and joined by our CEO Lisa Edgar with a specialist panel on vulnerability.

Here are my key takeaways from the vulnerability panel, and huge thanks to Dorothy Liviabella from Santander, Maxine Pritchard MBE from HSBC UK, Nel Mooij from Tesco Insurance and Money Services and Laura Crow from Fair4All Finance for sharing their insights.

Living and breathing consumer needs makes for good customer outcomes, and that goes for those in vulnerable circumstances too.

Dorothy Liviabella, Head of Vulnerable Customer Strategy at Santander, shared her experience of leading Santander’s work to support people who are impacted by Gambling Related Financial Harm.

“When I started working on our approach I didn’t know very much about gambling related harms, having not been close to this topic , and not knowing anyone who had. So the starting point was to increase our own knowledge and speak with people who had real life experience.”

“We worked with industry experts, and with people with lived experience to understand the impacts and how we could be most helpful. That informed everything we did – and continues to inform what we do today”.

As well as bringing a depth of insight to specific projects, Santander embed consumer stories throughout their work, including in annual mandatory training to ensure people’s voices are heard, and all employees are conscious of their impact on vulnerable customers. This continuous insight means the needs of customers in vulnerable situations are always considered throughout the design process.

And, there are tools out there to help organsiations with specific areas. Laura Crow, Senior Programme Manager for Propositions at Fair4All Finance, talked about their segmentation of people in financially vulnerable circumstances. “We built the segmentation so organisations could understand more about different groups, their specific needs, and then design and deliver propositions that meet those needs. This can be used alongside existing segmentation and insights to bring a focus on financial vulnerability”.

In 2024, Tesco Insurance asked The Big Window to help them understand how their vulnerability strategy and processes performed against others in the market. The Big Window spoke to 25 organsiations, and developed a benchmarking process to help Tesco understand where they are now, what best practice looks like, and how to get there. This work informed the early phase of the Inclusive Outcomes Pathway.

Throughout the conference, organisations spoke about their work on vulnerability being a journey, and progress being more challenging in some areas than in others.

Nel Mooij, Head of Product for Tesco Home Insurance, talked about improving vulnerable customer processes – and outcomes – providing a unique opportunity to challenge the status quo. “For years, organsiations have been pushed towards efficiency and building the most efficient process. Now we’re all asking – how do I recognise the person, and their individual needs, in this process?”

All panelists recognise that while disclosure of additional support needs is the best way to collect information about vulnerability, it’s only happening in small volumes, often for the most extreme circumstances (we talk about this more here)

Maxine Pritchard MBE, Head of Financial Inclusion and Vulnerability at HSBC, talked about their experience of spotting patterns in data to identify potential harm.

“We have a richness of data that could help us to recognise where a customer is in a vulnerable circumstance. We’ve worked a lot on understanding those patterns and what we do about it, for example supporting customers through cost of living challenges. Whilst it may be possible to identify vulnerable situations such as financial abuse, we must very cautiously work with specialist organisations and experts through lived experience to identify the most appropriate response. Get it wrong and it could be very serious, even life threatening, get it right and we could help to change someone’s life for the better.”

Some characteristics of vulnerability will have identifiable data patterns. Other organisations are using web and app tracking information to identify potential vulnerability (for example, long hover and read times, or looking for certain types of information). For many, a combined approach to data collection, and clear routes on what happens next, provide the best ways to support customers.

There were two themes that came together for me as I summarised the MRS Financial Services Conference.

The FCA review of firm’s treatment of customers in vulnerable circumstances is now coming in Q1 2025. Wherever you are, from consumer understanding and experience to measuring outcomes or designing strategies, we’re here to help. Find out more about what we do.