• FSA Library
  • Research
    • Consumer research
      • 2007

2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000

The FSA carries out consumer research to help inform our understanding of consumer behaviour in retail markets as part of our commitment to evidence based policy.We also undertake some research with firms to understand their engagement and interaction so that we can improve our service delivery.

We do not have a formal annual research programme though most of our research priorities are informed by our annual business plan. We have a framework agreement through which we commission most of our research. The FSA typically undertakes consumer and firm research to:

• Inform policy development work and provide evidence for cost benefit analysis, for example on disclosure;
• Assess firms' satisfaction with and experiences of FSA services, which can feed into performance indicators;
• Evaluate policy work and other initiatives such as our financial capability strategy;
• Provide evidence for major cross-cutting thematic projects; and
• Provide first hand experience of firms sales practices through mystery-shopping projects.