What the FCA says about who gets answered first on an adviser's phone

This piece covers administrative call handling for mortgage brokers and financial advice firms: enquiries, appointments and messages. It is not financial advice, and the FCA rules described are the firm's own responsibility to interpret with its compliance adviser.

What PRIN 2A.6 says a firm's support must do

The Financial Conduct Authority's Handbook sets out PRIN 2A.6, "Consumer Duty: retail customer outcome on consumer support". PRIN 2A.6.1R(1) says the section applies to all firms to whom the Consumer Duty applies, who are responsible for interacting directly with, and providing support to, retail customers, regardless of the channel used. Whether the rule applies to a given firm is a question for that firm's compliance adviser.

PRIN 2A.6.2R(4), a rule, says a firm must design and deliver support so that it "ensures that retail customers do not face unreasonable barriers (including unreasonable additional costs) during the lifecycle of a product". The examples the Handbook lists include general enquiries, amending or switching a product, making a complaint and cancelling an arrangement. The phone is one place those requests arrive.

The two ways the FCA says a firm would be unlikely to meet it

The Financial Conduct Authority's Handbook marks PRIN 2A.6.4G as guidance rather than a rule. It says a firm would be unlikely to meet its obligations in PRIN 2A.6.2R if its support "causes or would be likely to cause" either of two things. The first is "prospective retail customers to be prioritised over existing retail customers". The second is "unreasonable delays when retail customers attempt to engage with the firm, including disproportionately longer call waiting times to cancel or make changes to an existing product than to purchase a new product". An existing client waiting behind a new enquiry is what this guidance points at.

What the vulnerable customer guidance says

The Financial Conduct Authority's "Guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers" says firms should "Deliver appropriate customer service that responds flexibly to the needs of vulnerable consumers" and "Put in place systems and processes that support the delivery of good customer service, including systems to note and retrieve information about a customer's needs". Neither line describes a phone system. They describe a standard of service, and noting what a caller needs sits inside that.

The scale of the sector, in the FCA's own data

The Financial Conduct Authority's "The retail intermediary market data 2025" reports that "The reported number of mortgage adviser posts" was 32,990 in 2025, and that "The reported number of retail investment adviser posts across all firms" was 37,517 in 2025. It also says "Typically, up to around 12,000 firms complete at least one element of the RMAR, ranging from sole traders up to large broker companies and adviser networks". Firms that "advise on, or arrange mortgages, insurance policies or retail investment products for consumers must send us information about their activities on the RMAR".

What actually changes with an AI receptionist

Ringar AI answers the call, takes the caller's name, number and what they need, and works from the information you have given it. Where a calendar is connected, it can offer a free slot and book into it. Where a caller needs a person, it records a callback request with who to ring, what about and when suits. Your team sees the call, what was said and what came of it in their dashboard. None of that makes a firm compliant with the Consumer Duty or PRIN 2A.6. It changes one practical thing: whoever rings, and whenever they ring, the call is answered rather than left to voicemail.

A worked example, not a claim about your mortgage advice firm

This example is invented. An existing client rings a small mortgage advice firm to move a review meeting. Shortly afterwards, someone with a new enquiry rings. The FCA guidance covers far more than the phone, and answering both calls is one way a firm can avoid one group waiting behind the other, not a way of meeting the rule. Ringar AI answers each call. For the existing client it takes the details and offers a free slot where a calendar is connected; for the new enquiry it records a callback request. Both are recorded separately for your team.