NEWS & VIEWS

Below you will find the latest news written by our experienced industry practitioners. Our Shapes First consultants discuss trends, industry news, top tips and much more…

Simon Tweddle 30/09/2024 Simon Tweddle 30/09/2024

Would you sell it to your Parents? A question for the Consumer Duty Champion

Asking tough questions early in the development process like "Would you sell this to your parents?" ensures that products are not only compliant but also genuinely aligned with the needs of the customer.

Michelle Bailey 08/03/2024 Michelle Bailey 08/03/2024

Let’s Make 2024 a Landmark Year for #InspireInclusion and #InvestInWomen

International Women’s Day- Let’s Make 2024 a Landmark Year for #InspireInclusion and #InvestingInWomen

Since its inception, International Women’s Day (IWD) has not only celebrated the monumental strides women have made but also highlighted the persistent challenges and inequalities they face. This year, we embrace two compelling themes: Inspiring Inclusion and Investing in Women

Simon Tweddle 14/02/2024 Simon Tweddle 14/02/2024

How can Enterprise Risk interact with the CISO?

Incorporating 20 questions for the CISO into an enterprise-wide risk assessment involves aligning these questions with the firm's overall risk management framework. This alignment ensures that cybersecurity risks are appropriately identified, assessed, prioritised, and managed within the broader context of the firm's risk profile.

Simon Tweddle 11/02/2024 Simon Tweddle 11/02/2024

20 Questions for the CISO

If you're a CEO, CFO or NED going through your papers and you've got to the section on information risk management: stop reading for a moment and ask yourself, do you know the answers to these questions. Have they been asked, are the answers in the papers you're reading and do you understand the answers? This 2-minute read could have a material influence over the next discussion on this subject.

Michelle Bailey 19/01/2024 Michelle Bailey 19/01/2024

EU council and Parliament propose an agreement for the strengthening of AML and CFT controls.

The EU council and Parliament have proposed an agreement containing updates and changes to help with combating anti money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing. If approved there are several areas where they believe they have plugged previous gaps and have tightened up areas of weakness.

elena knight 17/11/2023 elena knight 17/11/2023

Consumer protection and good customer outcomes in an evolving financial services ecosystem.

This paper describes the evolution of standards in relation to financial services consumer protection, the new and evolving risks that consumers face and considers why regulation is needed that requires firms to put their customer needs first.

Michael Faber 14/04/2023 Michael Faber 14/04/2023

Magazine interview - new rules heading the financial services way

Michael Faber was recently interviewed by CIR Magazine regarding the raft of new rules heading the Financial Services way. The article included questions regarding recent and new regulations affecting the finance sector, what needs to be done to fulfil the new duties, and views on what may be on the horizon.

Simon Tweddle 05/04/2023 Simon Tweddle 05/04/2023

Why did we get shortlisted for an award?

We were thrilled to have been shortlisted for Consultancy of the Year and Specialist Company of the Year for our work in the Wholesale Broking and Payment Services sectors on Operational Resilience a few weeks ago.

Michael Faber 17/03/2023 Michael Faber 17/03/2023

Shaping Up Your Risk Management

The recent events impacting the banking sector with the fall out after the troubles at Silicon Valley Bank should lead to financial firms asking if their risk frameworks are really shaping up to the challenge and are fit for purpose.

Simon Tweddle 08/03/2023 Simon Tweddle 08/03/2023

International Women’s Day 2023 - let’s #EmbraceEquity

Giving ‘equity a huge embrace’ (IWD 2023’s social image). We are never too old or too young to #EmbraceEquity.

Simon Tweddle 02/02/2023 Simon Tweddle 02/02/2023

It looks like Crypto is here to stay

Whatever your view on crypto, like the internet, it’s probably not going anywhere for a while. When the government ups the ante on regulation it's a good sign that they agree it’s not going anywhere either.

Simon Tweddle 18/01/2023 Simon Tweddle 18/01/2023

We have joined The Payments Association

In November we had an offsite, sounds a bit grand. It was in part preparation for our rebranding and launch event, and part involving the team in the strategy discussions. We took some actions away, one of which was to decide what was next in terms of our association memberships. I am pleased to say we closed that action today.

Simon Tweddle 11/01/2023 Simon Tweddle 11/01/2023

False starts and laggards. The FCA set the tone in their latest “Dear CEO” letter to wholesale broking firms

In their latest Dear CEO letter the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK tell wholesale brokers that they have until the end of February 2023 to get the house in order.

Simon Tweddle 09/01/2023 Simon Tweddle 09/01/2023

How can we promote financial inclusion and protect those who have little if any financial resilience?

During December Simon collaborated with Fair4All Finance, the Financial Conduct Authority and several other market participants and subject matter experts in a sprint facilitated by the FCA. The subject: Affordable Credit.

Michelle Bailey 05/01/2023 Michelle Bailey 05/01/2023

Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR)

The cryptocurrency market has remained broadly unregulated in many jurisdictions, and inconsistent in others, until now.

Michelle Bailey 22/12/2022 Michelle Bailey 22/12/2022

Go on, take a little risk !

In life it could easily be argued that without taking a few risks things would be boring. In business, there’s no revenue without risk.

Karen Latham 21/12/2022 Karen Latham 21/12/2022

TSB - a lesson to be learned for Operational Resilience

Yesterday’s announcement of fines levied on TSB is a timely reminder to regulated firms that the anniversary of the implementation of this year’s operational resilience regulation is fast approaching at the end of March 2023.

Simon Tweddle 16/12/2022 Simon Tweddle 16/12/2022

Something short on Whistleblowing

Donna Turner recently attended a conference in London to discuss Whistleblowing and its impact on company culture. A quick excerpt, read on…

Karen Latham 12/12/2022 Karen Latham 12/12/2022

New Partnership Announcement

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with Reynolds Busby Lee, a specialist consultancy.

Michael Faber 12/12/2022 Michael Faber 12/12/2022

Protect Duty and Winter Safety

Protect Duty has come about due to lessons learned from several terrorist attacks in public spaces across the UK, including the Manchester Arena bombing, previously referred to as ‘Martyn’s Law’.

Events

Karen Latham and Chris Ham were honoured to have been invited to attend OneBanx’s Crowdfunding launch event in London on 16th November. OneBanx’s mission is to bring community banking back to the community and help customers who are not ‘tech-savvy’ switch to digital banking.

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Featured

What are you doing about client money? The rules are changing, don’t get left behind.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its Consultation Paper CP24/20 focused on enhancing safeguarding practices for the Payment and E-Money firms. The FCA’s proposed safeguarding changes represent a significant upgrade to existing practices, and firms should begin preparing now to ensure they can meet the timeframes.

Resilient businesses thrive - are you ready? Operational Resilience deadline approaching.

Operational resilience isn’t achieved in isolation. Today’s interconnected financial sector means that third-party vendors, and market infrastructures are integral to delivering IBS. Mapping these dependencies is crucial; firms need to understand exactly what resources—people, processes, technology, and vendors—are involved in each important business service.

Is your house in order? FCA complete their Consumer Duty multi-firm review.

“Firms should read this review, consider how their firm compares, and use it to address any shortfalls or gaps and raise standards. It is better for firms to resolve issues now than wait for us to identify and intervene on issues and remediate any harm later.”

What’s that coming over the hill? Third party risk management, it’s a beast.

Third-party risks emerge from direct relationships between financial institutions and their vendors or service providers, fourth-party risks arise from the subcontractors of these third parties. Do your supplier relationships look a little like the image, and do you really understand who is dependent on who?

Is your security posture limited to the regulatory requirements? Do you know, have you asked?

Regulators cannot possibly stay ahead of cybercriminals and it’s simply not realistic to expect them to. Regulations can lag years behind criminal innovation, and like the picture I asked our AI to create for this post, we face an indestructible enemy. If you’re C-suite, start thinking about the regulatory requirements for security as the floor, and then ask yourself “how much do we need to invest to stand up?”

Operational Resilience and DORA. Do it once, get them both right.

As I said in my post last week: “The operational resilience requirements in the UK share common objectives with the EBA guidelines for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) security risk management, and the requirements laid down by DORA in the EU.” It made sense to me to follow up with a piece on the EBA guidelines.

Financial Services Calendar

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