FCA furore | Financial wellbeing is a pressing priority, and HR must act now

It’s a challenging time for workers’ financial wellbeing. With a cost-of-living crisis still very much a concern for most, the cost of housing and rent going up and financial volatility impacting wage growth, it’s clear that many are struggling with the burdens of poor financial health.

Therefore, it’s imperative that businesses are doing what they can to bolster their employees’ financial wellbeing wherever they can. This could be a simple as offering solutions such as financial education, or subsidising some areas of working life, like lunches or travel.

Yet recent revelations about the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have shed light on a concerning trend: even organisations tasked with overseeing financial stability can falter in safeguarding their own staff's financial security.

The FCA, responsible for regulating some of the nation's largest banks and wealth managers, is currently facing a torrent of backlash over its handling of its own employee compensation, with reports suggesting that staff at the regulator are grappling with "objectively low pay," failing to keep up with the surge in inflation.