Treasury Consultation on Financial Services Cold Call Ban

Today, the Treasury issued a consultation calling for responses to proposals for a complete ban on cold calling (unsolicited calls i.e., you did not ask for the call) on consumer related financial services and products.

Originally announced as part of the government’s Fraud Strategy in May 2023, it is proposed to extend the pensions cold calling ban to cover cold calling for all consumer financial services and products.

As many will know, criminals and fraudsters regularly use telecommunications to commit fraud by cold calling consumers about their pensions, investments, or banking.

A ban on cold calling for all consumer financial services and products will help block fraud attempts before they can cause harm and distress.

Comment

The public will then come to know and understand that no legitimate financial firm would cold call them to market financial services or products and be able to immediately terminate and report these calls.

The Treasury is looking for feedback on how best to design and implement a ban to prevent scam calls hurting consumers and financial services firm’s pockets, while allowing legitimate communication from regulated businesses to continue.

Assuming this passes, it will be the duty of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to implement the ban.  Sadly, though we still expect fraudsters to continue and some consumers will fall foul of this but we hope many more will recognise fraudulent calls.