This is not the latest approved version of this apprenticeship. View the latest version
This apprenticeship is in revision
Proposal approved
Occupational standard approved
End-point assessment plan approved
Funding approved
This occupation is found in financial services organisations including banks, building societies and insurance firms including life insurers. These may range from large multi-national banks to smaller independent financial services organisations.
A Financial Services Customer Adviser (FSCA) uses their technical knowledge of financial services and products to support customers. They work as part of a team whether in a branch, through the internet, social media or operations centres that support other areas of financial services.
The broad purpose of the occupation is to provide financial information across a wide range of financial products, supporting customers with various financial requirements.
In their daily work, an FSCA interacts with a range of internal and external stakeholders and customers. This could include individual and business customers, colleagues in other teams, colleagues working within specialist areas, and with partner organisations.
An FSCA will be responsible for ensuring all activities they undertake meet legal, regulatory and organisational standards. This may include aspects of due diligence when providing products and services such as fraud prevention, Anti-Money Laundering and other financial conduct regulatory regimes.
An FSCA may work across a range of financial products and services. This could include core financial products such as current accounts and savings accounts in banks, building societies and other financial services organisations. They may support particular insurance products such as buildings, contents or vehicle products. They may work in life assurance or insurance.
They advise customers and provide the right financial products and services. They use communication skills to respond to customers who contact the organisation by telephone, email, through a digital channel or face to face.
They identify and meet customer needs and resolve problems for customers, other colleagues and their team. When communicating complex financial information face to face or virtually with customers they articulate concepts in readily understandable and accessible language. They may deal with vulnerable customers or those under stress and so they must be empathetic and responsive.
They resolve or escalate difficult and sensitive financial issues by working with other areas of the organisation to meet customer needs, referring the customer to more specialist advisers as necessary.
An FSCA provides exceptional customer service whilst dealing with more complex issues and handling customer concerns, remaining calm and professional at all times. They apply principles of equity, diversity and inclusion when helping customers to ensure that they receive a bespoke service for their needs.
A key aspect of the occupation is promoting new digital services to encourage customers to use these channels. This requires FSCAs to understand and keep up to date with digital platforms and their use and communicate this in accessible language.
FSCAs devote time to continued professional development (CPD) and may work towards gaining relevant professional qualifications as appropriate to their employment.
| Duty | KSBs |
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Duty 1 Provide financial services to customers in line with the requirements of the wider financial services regulatory framework and best practice, including green and sustainable finance. |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K16 |
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Duty 2 Engage with stakeholders to understand needs, provide information and escalate matters that are outside of remit. |
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Duty 3 Comply with the legal and regulatory standards that impact on financial services activity and contribute to a compliant workplace. Work in line with the organisation's processes, and relevant codes of conduct. |
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Duty 4 Work with other business areas and collaborate with colleagues to deliver joined-up customer service and refer customers to specialist areas when appropriate. |
K1 K2 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K10 K11 K12 K14 |
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Duty 5 Support the resolution of stakeholder issues and complaints in line with organisational policies and relevant financial services regulatory frameworks. |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K9 K10 K11 K12 K14 |
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Duty 6 Maintain financial records, ensuring they are complete, accurate, well archived and safeguarded and in compliance with finance process and regulations. |
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Duty 7 Use digital tools to provide stakeholder support. |
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Duty 8 Maintain up to date continued professional development (CPD) including financial service knowledge and practice. |
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Duty 9 Identify, assess, and manage potential risks or problems, for example, financial fraud, reputational risks, errors and oversight, ensuring alignment with company guidelines and escalating issues where necessary. |
K1: The structure of the financial services industry including the role of their organisation and relevant financial services professionals and product providers and how they support stakeholders.
Back to Duty
K2: The impact of external environmental factors on the Financial Services industry, their organisation and their role.
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K3: The financial services legal and regulatory frameworks and where relevant, how they apply to your role, including the impact and consequences of non-compliance.
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K4: Professional standards and best practice in financial services and how these are applied through organisational policies and procedures in line with internal policy, environment and regulatory guidelines as appropriate.
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K5: Approaches to risk and governance in Financial Services and how these impact on their role, such as, the difference between providing customers with information and advice, the difference between regulated and non-regulated products, escalation procedures, conduct risk, training and competence, complaints, and fraud prevention.
Back to Duty
K6: The principles of customer service, organisational duty to consumers and how to apply this to deliver positive relationships for key stakeholders, such as knowing your customer, treating your customers fairly and dealing with vulnerable customers.
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K7: Communication techniques including active listening, questioning techniques, identifying and supporting vulnerable customers including when to escalate for further assistance in line with organisational policies and procedures.
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K8: Financial services digital systems, software, tools and processes, such as digital banking solutions and the use of interactive communication and collaborative tools, used to support customer service and advice.
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K9: Principles of digital security including obtaining, sharing and storing customer information safely and securely and risks to data from cybercrime.
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K10: Principles of data protection and the relevance for delivering customer service
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K11: Workflow management, key performance indicators and their impact on productivity and customer service outcomes.
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K12: The team strategy and objectives and the roles of different members of the team, including your own role, in delivering those objectives.
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K13: Green and sustainable policies and practices in the finance sector and how to minimise negative environmental impacts within the role and wider organisation.
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K14: Principles of equity diversity and inclusion and their relevance for customer service delivery and collaborative relationships with stakeholders.
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K15: Principles of continuing professional development (CPD) within the financial services industry and the impact of learning to their personal, professional and career development.
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K16: Emerging technology within financial services and the possible impact to your role, team and organisation.
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S1: Apply organisational or industry practice, in line with regulatory and legal frameworks, to achieve optimal outcomes for stakeholders.
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S2: Adhere to organisation policies and procedures by working within own authority and escalate where required
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S3: Identify customer requirements and select appropriate financial services or products to achieve appropriate outcomes for customer.
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S4: Communicate with customers and colleagues through a variety of channels, using active listening and language that is meaningful to the recipient, for example, written reports, presentations, phone, face-to-face, email or digital channels.
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S5: Use appropriate questioning techniques to understand customer needs, gain insight and information to inform decision making and suggest solutions.
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S6: Establish customer relationships applying principles of equity diversity and inclusion to deliver a personalised customer service taking account of vulnerability.
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S7: Support the resolution of customer dissatisfaction in line with organisational or industry practice, escalating in line with organisational procedures as needed.
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S8: Coach and assist customers to access and use appropriate digital solutions to meet their financial service’s needs.
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S9: Comply with current data legislation and organisational policies including when handling sensitive customer data and using digital systems and processes to service customer and organisation needs.
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S10: Plan and organise workload to meet commitments using recognised time management methods in line with organisation expectations.
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S11: Build and maintain collaborative working relationships with a range of colleagues and customers to deliver positive outcomes.
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S12: Identify opportunities for improvement and support activities to improve performance and service
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S13: Act on feedback to improve personal performance, contribute to team performance and take ownership of own development to build competency.
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S14: Handle data safely and securely and share information in compliance with data protection legislation and organisation’s policy.
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B1: Act in a professional and ethical manner, maintaining confidentiality and acting with due care and diligence by adhering to organisational standards.
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B2: Display a growth mindset and uses own initiative, takes responsibility for the quality of work, and actively participates in problem solving.
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B3: Resilience in adapting to change and in challenging situations and demonstrates flexibility in response to shifting work priorities.
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B4: Demonstrate empathy, consider the reaction of others, ensure fair customer outcomes are central to all decisions including adherence to the organisation's diversity and inclusion policies and an unbiased approach to supporting customers.
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B5: Take personal responsibility for ongoing professional development opportunities.
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B6: Acts with due care and diligence to maintain client confidentiality and complies with data protection regulations.
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Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.
| Version | Change detail | Earliest start date | Latest start date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revised version awaiting implementation | Not set | Not set | |
| 1.2 | End-point assessment plan revised | 09/01/2025 | Not set |
| 1.1 | The funding band for this standard has been reviewed as part of the apprenticeship funding band review. The new funding band is £8000 | 01/07/2019 | 08/01/2025 |
| 1.0 | Retired | 27/08/2015 | 30/06/2019 |
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