Consumers face a complex financial landscape with evolving risks that stem from economic factors, technology and digitalisation, and unfair or deceptive business models. Financial scams and risky products are also on the rise, exacerbated by low financial literacy. While quality financial products can help consumers better manage their financial lives, poor provider conduct undermines this potential role for the financial sector.
In this context, it is critical for policymakers to support the full implementation of comprehensive financial consumer protection frameworks to strengthen supervisory capacity, empower financial consumers and protect those who may be vulnerable. To this end, the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection has developed global standards, including the G20/OECD High-Level Principles on Financial Consumer Protection and the OECD Recommendation on Consumer Protection in the field of Consumer Credit.
The OECD also acts as the Secretariat for FinCoNet, an international network of market conduct supervisors with responsibility for financial consumer protection. This role allows for a greater dissemination of OECD standards to a wider group of national authorities.