What Does the FCA Mean by Durable Medium?

Durable medium is a set of characteristics

The FCA does not define durable medium as one particular technology.

Instead, the definition focuses on what the recipient must be able to do with the information.

The FCA Handbook definition of durable medium includes paper and other instruments that enable the recipient to:

• store information addressed personally to them
• access that information for future reference for an adequate period
• reproduce the stored information unchanged

That means the important question is not simply:

Is this an email, PDF, app or portal?

The better question is:

Does the way we provide the information actually satisfy the durable-medium characteristics?

The three core requirements

1. The information is addressed personally to the recipient

Durable medium is concerned with information provided to a particular recipient.

Publishing general information on a public webpage is therefore different from delivering information personally to a customer.

A secure account, personally addressed email, customer-specific document or another individual delivery process may satisfy this part of the test.

2. The recipient can access it later

The recipient must be able to store the information in a way that remains accessible for future reference for a period appropriate to the purpose of the information.

This matters because many regulated documents are useful long after the day they are sent.

Statements, agreements, notices, policy documents and disclosures may need to be reviewed months or years later.

3. The information can be reproduced unchanged

The recipient must be able to return to the information that was originally provided.

A live page that simply shows the latest version of information is not the same thing as preserving the version supplied at an earlier point in time.

The FCA’s durable-medium guidance uses online banking statements as a useful example: a customer should be able to access previous statements unchanged, rather than only seeing the current information.

Why customer control matters

The FCA explains the purpose behind the definition particularly clearly.

Storability and unchanged reproduction are intended to prevent information being provided only in a short-lived form and to prevent the provider from unilaterally changing information after it has been supplied.

The underlying principle is that the information should be placed under the customer’s control rather than remain solely under the provider’s control.

That is an important way to think about durable medium in practice.

It is not only about whether information can technically be viewed.

It is about whether the customer has a reliable record of what they were given.

Which electronic formats can be a durable medium?

The FCA says many forms of electronic media are capable of satisfying the definition.

Its guidance discusses:

• emails
• PDFs
• mobile and tablet apps
• interactive secure websites
• downloadable or stored video
• other electronic formats capable of meeting the requirements

None of these should be treated as automatically compliant simply because of the technology used.

The implementation still matters.

For example, an email can be a durable medium because it can be personally addressed, stored and reproduced.

A customer portal can also be a durable medium if it preserves personally addressed information, keeps it accessible and allows previous information to be reproduced unchanged.

Durable medium is not the same as a website

This distinction is easy to miss.

Some FCA rules permit information to be provided either:

• in a durable medium, or
• through a website that does not itself constitute a durable medium, provided separate website conditions are satisfied

So a website does not always have to be a durable medium in order to be used for regulatory information.

The relevant rule matters.

Firms therefore need to identify both:

1. what the applicable FCA rule requires
2. whether the chosen delivery method satisfies that particular requirement

A practical durable-medium checklist

When reviewing a communication method, useful questions include:

Question	Why it matters
Is the information provided to the individual customer?	Durable-medium information must be personally addressed
Can the customer retain or return to it later?	The information must remain available for future reference
How long will access remain available?	The period must be adequate for the purpose of the information
Can the original information later be reproduced unchanged?	Historic information must not simply be replaced by a newer version
Can the provider alter the customer’s settled copy?	The customer should have a reliable record of what was supplied
What happens when the commercial relationship ends?	Important records may still be needed after an account closes
What happens when a portal is replaced or migrated?	Historical accessibility and integrity still need to be preserved

The answers will depend on the communication, the applicable rule and the system being used.

Where Documentd fits

Documentd is designed around a simple separation of roles.

Email can continue to handle communication. A customer portal can continue to handle live information, transactions and account servicing.

Documentd is used for the important point-in-time documents the customer should receive and be able to keep.

Documents are delivered into the customer’s own Keepd document space, giving them a persistent place to access the documents they have received.

See the Documentd durable-medium approach for more detail.

The key point

A durable medium is not a particular file format or software product.

It is a way of providing information that gives the recipient a reliable, lasting and unchanged record.

For firms moving more customer communications online, that distinction is the useful starting point.