Product Governance

Product Governance

Paymentshield has robust processes for managing products to ensure they are meeting customer needs, performing as both the adviser and the customer would expect and that they are compliant at all times. Our control framework includes:

• An approval process for all new products to ensure the product has been developed properly and is appropriate for the target market 
• Regular reviews of all products. We follow the General Insurance Pricing Practises rules that require us to review all our products annually. You will be engaged in the review process to assess the value of the distribution chain and outputs will be shared with you once the reviews are complete. More information about what those assessments consist of is included below.
  
• All product changes are subject to stringent approval process. Any significant change requires approval from the Paymentshield Product & Pricing committee, which meets monthly and reviews all new product launches, material product & pricing changes and product reviews, including fair value assessments 
  
• Regular partner reviews to ensure a high level of service and value offered by our insurers and product providers 
  
• Client money procedures ensure money is  handled in line with insurer agreements and regulatory requirements 
  
• Procedures to manage and monitor Conflicts of Interest with additional oversight to ensure appropriate controls are in place 
• The monitoring of regulatory developments and active tracking of their implementation

Following the introduction of the GIPP rules, all products will be reviewed annually. We have designed a Fair Value Assessment template which we believe to be fully compliant with the intent of the FCA. This comprehensive template includes:

• A product overview
• Target market statement and their needs
• Market comparison
• Product value assessment
• Distribution value assessment
• Distribution chain analysis
• Service value assessment
• We have built a comprehensive suite of MI to inform these assessments to ensure the right information is always available and product reviews can be completed as required.
  
  You will be engaged in this process to ensure your views are represented and outputs will be shared.