Doing more to support your customers

Customers are at the heart of every retailer’s business and it’s vital that your customers are treated fairly at every stage – particularly when they take out finance.

Selling finance compliantly

Finance is regulated, and there’s lots of dos and don’ts when it comes to promoting it.

With Novuna you can have confidence that you are working alongside a responsible and compliant finance provider and our retail finance experts will provide you with comprehensive support during the onboarding process and beyond. Choosing the right finance partner is an important thing to do, as it can help to protect you, your customers and avoid any retribution from regulators.

Introduction to FCA authorisation

Depending on what finance products you’d like to offer your customers, you may need to apply for Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation before you can offer finance to your customers. If you’re not sure where to start, our team can put you in touch with compliance experts who can explain the process in more detail.

E-learning modules

Once you’ve decided to partner with Novuna, your team will get access to our exclusive e-learning modules. There’s no limit on how many staff members can access these modules so you can train up as many colleagues as necessary. Plus, your staff can come back to them for a refresher as often as they need.

Training support

Do your colleagues need additional support on how to offer and process finance? Talk to our retail experts who will work with you to identify the right support for you team.

Financial promotions guidelines

You’ll need to make sure any promotions for financial products and services meet Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and FCA requirements. Our partners receive a comprehensive Financial Promotions Guide to support them, though you can get a small taster of what to expect by reading our guide to promoting retail finance.

Compliance checks

Once you’re all set up and ready to go live, our onboarding specialists will ensure you have the necessary policies in place.

POS materials

We provide ready-to-go POS materials, complete with pre-approved messaging, so you can start promoting finance as soon as you’re all set up with us. Choose from digital banners to use across your website, right through to window vinyls to catch the eye of passing shoppers.

Ongoing marketing and compliance support

We have an in-house team of hundreds of retail finance specialists across different departments. Whether you have a question about banner wording or a social ad, run it past our team to ensure you are remaining compliant.

Ongoing conduct risk support

So, you’re welcoming customers through your door or onto your website, driving finance transactions and boosting sales. Great news all round.

But what if things are slipping through the net, such as a rise in mis-selling complaints? While it’s easy to continue with business as usual and respond to complaints or issues as they arise, in our experience it is far better to be proactive.

We have a specialist conduct risk process designed to support our retailers and their customers.

Conduct risk metric analysis

To ensure responsible lending, we monitor a select range of key metrics and compare against sector averages to help us spot any potentially concerning trends or patterns.

This could be anything ranging from the suitability of the product, to concerns related to the selling of finance.

We’ll work closely with you to understand the reasons for any metrics which fall outside of the sector norm.

Care calls

Our corporate risk colleagues speak directly to customers to ensure they’re happy with their finance product. This helps us to identify any potential concerns.

Mystery shopping

A mystery shopper will visit select retailers in-store to ensure finance is being sold to customers correctly, checking that all rules and policies are being followed.

We work exclusively with mystery shopping experts who have extensive knowledge of the finance sector. This ensures the process is fair, comprehensive and effective.

Prioritise your customers with Novuna Consumer Finance

We don’t just say we look after you and your customers. We have the processes, procedures and policies in place to prove it.

When you partner with us, you’ll benefit from our robust risk processes. We won’t just turn a blind eye if we spot a red flag – we’ll work with you to get to the root of the problem and solve it together.

The benefits of conduct risk

We are never trying to catch you and your sales team out. Our processes, such as measuring key conduct metrics and mystery shopping, are in place to protect you along with the customer and all have key advantages:

Look after your customers

Regulations are in place to protect customers and deliver good consumer outcomes. Upholding them ensures a good customer experience which, going forward, makes it much more likely that a customer will return and buy from you again in the future.

Avoid FCA ramifications

Breaking any rules or regulations, however inadvertently, could land you in hot water with the FCA. This could result in fines or even your finance facility being revoked which could affect your revenue.

Provide peace of mind for your senior team

In some cases, senior members of your business are personally responsible for upholding conduct rules. It’s vitally important that all members of staff understand and uphold regulations and policies, as misconduct can have a far-reaching impact on both the business and its staff.

So, while no one wants to have tough conversations about how they’re selling finance, it really is far better to identify and rectify issues as soon as possible. We can help you to do that.

Get in touch with us to find out more about our conduct risk measures and how to partner with one of the UK’s most reputable providers.