Duty of Care in Outsourced Financial Services

Felcorp owes a duty of care to every client and end-customer whose data and interests it handles. This duty exists independently of the commercial relationship. It cannot be set aside, diluted or compromised by financial benefit, client pressure or operational convenience.

When a financial services firm entrusts operational functions to Felcorp, the people whose data is being processed, whose transactions are being managed and whose records are being maintained are owed the same standard of care they would receive if the work were performed in-house.

Felcorp's duty of care is built on four fundamental obligations.

Diligence

Felcorp is obligated to operate with diligence across every aspect of service delivery. This means maintaining consistent attention to accuracy, completeness and correctness in all work performed on behalf of clients and their end-customers.

Diligence is enforced through the management oversight workflows described under Operational Processes and Policies, where every task passes through defined procedures, review and approval stages. It is reinforced through daily timesheet accountability, performance assessments and the ongoing supervision provided by Division Managers working alongside their teams.

Diligence also extends to how data is handled, stored and protected. The controls described across this security and compliance framework exist because careful operation demands them.

Skill

Felcorp has an obligation to maintain the skills and competencies necessary to deliver the services it offers. Any claim made about Felcorp's capabilities must be backed by the training, experience and operational infrastructure to support it.

All staff complete structured onboarding that covers the technical, regulatory and procedural requirements of their role. A minimum of 40 hours of continuing professional development is required annually, with Division Managers responsible for monitoring competency and identifying where additional development is needed.

This obligation ensures that the people performing work on behalf of clients are qualified to do so, and that Felcorp does not overstate its capacity to deliver.

Compliance

Felcorp is obligated to comply with its own policies, the expectations of the industries it serves and the regulatory frameworks that govern its clients' businesses. This obligation is not conditional on whether compliance is convenient or commercially advantageous.

The compliance framework described under Alignment to Industry Regulations and Expectations sets out how Felcorp aligns its operations with applicable legislation, professional standards and licensing conditions. Internally, the policies documented across Felcorp's Data Protection, Confidentiality and Operations frameworks are binding on all staff and subject to regular review.

Where regulatory requirements change, Felcorp updates its policies and processes to reflect the new obligations rather than waiting for enforcement action to compel change.

Care

Felcorp is obligated to deliver its services with care for the interests of the people affected by its work. This means treating client data as sensitive, handling end-customer information with the same respect the client would, and recognising that behind every record is an individual whose privacy and financial wellbeing matter.

Care is reflected in the structural protections described across this framework: the engagement-level separation that prevents cross-contamination of client data, the non-disclosure obligations that hold staff legally accountable, the secure working environment that eliminates uncontrolled exposure, and the monitoring activities that confirm controls are functioning.

These protections exist because delivering with care requires more than good intentions. It requires systems, processes and accountability.

Independence of the Duty

Felcorp's duty of care operates independently of its commercial interests. The fact that a client pays for services does not entitle the client to direct Felcorp to act in ways that compromise the interests of end-customers or breach regulatory expectations.

Where a conflict arises between commercial pressure and the duty of care, the duty of care prevails. This independence is fundamental to maintaining trust in outsourced financial services and is reinforced by the legal obligations described under Non-Disclosure Agreements.

How This Fits the Security Framework

The duty of care is the principle that sits above Felcorp's three-layer security framework. It is the reason the framework exists. Every control, policy and process described across this section serves the obligation to act with diligence, skill, compliance and care when handling the interests of others.