Central Bank of Ireland sets retail intermediary supervisory priorities and backs personal investment accounts

In a speech, Central Bank of Ireland Deputy Governor Colm Kincaid said retail intermediaries will remain central to helping consumers navigate more digital, complex financial services and to increasing retail participation in capital markets. He backed the European Union's Savings and Investments Union and welcomed work through the Savings and Investment Forum on a Personal Investment Account in Ireland, while stressing that broader retail participation requires a regulatory framework that gives consumers confidence they are protected. The speech linked that objective to the Central Bank of Ireland's updated consumer protection and supervisory agenda. The new Consumer Protection Code strengthens firms' duties to act in consumers' best interests, inform consumers effectively, embed consumer needs in digital design, manage conflicts of interest and treat customers in vulnerable circumstances appropriately. The bank also pointed to its simplification roadmap and integrated supervisory model launched in January 2025. For retail intermediaries specifically, it said 2026 supervisory work will include concluding a cross-sector review of customer support, starting a review of how firms identify and treat vulnerable customers, beginning a cross-sector review of certain intermediary commission arrangements, and checking implementation of new rules on the sale of unregulated financial products and services, including requirements that regulated and unregulated offerings not be presented under the same or similar branding where this could confuse consumers.