Fortnightly financial #41 Matt Phillips

Please can you tell us about your role at FSCS?

I'm the Head of Readiness at FSCS, in my role I oversee the delivery of compensation to customers of failed PRA-regulated Deposit Takers. To ensure FSCS is able to make payments within seven days of a Deposit Taker failure my area also conducts ongoing assurance work on regulated Deposit Takers' Single Customer View (SCV) files, which is a complete extract of their customer details including balances and whether individuals are eligible for compensation. In my role I'm also responsible for risk management across the Operations area.

Why is Readiness an important function of the organisation?

Readiness is an essential part of FSCS as it ensures compensation is paid as soon as possible to customers of a regulated Deposit Taker when it fails. This helps to ensure the impact to customers is minimised as much as possible by making sure they have continuity of access to their money and helps to build trust in the UK's financial industry.

Readiness also work very closely with the regulators (Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority) and government (HM Treasury) to maintain awareness of and prepare for potential Deposit Takers failures and to develop policies across all product areas, to ensure they remain effective and appropriate as the financial services industry evolves. 

How important is collaborating with the financial services industry to ensure FSCS is prepared for the failures that come our way?

Collaborating with the financial services industry is essential in ensuring FSCS is prepared for failures. In addition to the work we do with regulators and government and the assurance work we undertake with regulated Deposit Takers, we regularly engage with trade bodies and individual firms to listen to their feedback, understand what they are experiencing and to learn about new products and services in the industry. This helps us to make sure we understand the diversity of products within the market, how firms are operating and provides us the opportunity to educate firms on how FSCS operates in a failure scenario.   

What would be your key message to the industry levy payers?

The financial services industry continues to evolve at pace and we want to continue building relationships across the industry to ensure we continue to provide the best service and experience for customers of failed firms and industry levy payers.

Finally, on a more personal note, a question we ask most of our guests: if £10,000 landed in your lap tomorrow, what would you do with it?

My daughter has just started to get into Disney films (I currently live my life to the soundtrack of Frozen), so I'd take my wife and daughter to Disney World in Florida and use what was left (if anything) to buy as many Disney character outfits for her as I could!

Thanks for shedding light on such an important topic, Matt.

For more information on what FSCS protects, see our What we cover page.

The content of any discussions shouldn't be taken as an indication of future FSCS policy positions. The views expressed by guests are their own and don't reflect the views of FSCS.