8 August 2021
Firms must remain vigilant to changes to the conduct risks they may be exposed to and regulators’ expectations as to what “good” looks like. This post will help those charged with oversight and/or development of conduct risk management frameworks test whether their existing framework is still fit for purpose.
3 August 2021
Conduct risk management remains central to the FCA’s agenda. Nikhil Rathi’s recent speech warned that “firms should expect us to be even more rigorous on upholding high standards – especially on governance, conflicts of interest and conduct”. This post explores the FCA’s approach to conduct risk management and the steps firms should be taking before the FCA’s “more rigorous” approach to conduct standards begins to bite.
8 July 2021
Financial services firms and their regulators are increasingly focussed on diversity and inclusion as drivers of positive culture and hence better conduct and regulatory outcomes. In the week the UK regulators publish a wide-ranging Discussion Paper, we consider aspects of diversity and inclusion where firms need to be ready for scrutiny from regulators and their staff, their investors and the broader public.
2 July 2021
As UK regulators continue to scrutinise firms’ implementation of the conduct rules, in this article we set out our thinking on how firms can assess their implementation of the rules to identify where improvements might be necessary.
17 June 2021
Ten years after the High Court’s dismissal of the legal challenge to the FSA’s payment protection insurance (“PPI”) rules and approaching two years since the PPI claims deadline, seems like a fitting time to pause and reflect on the evolution since that time of approaches to conduct risk in retail financial services.
27 May 2021
While the most senior executives will sit on the Board, their roles and responsibilities are distinct from and supplement those of the Board. In our latest post, we look back at previous articles on the role of the executive in corporate governance and highlighted just a few of the areas of particular challenge for firms in the regulated sector and their senior executives.
26 May 2021
Effective board governance and executive governance are both critical to ensuring the success of a firm but the distinction between the roles can be misunderstood or become blurred.
20 May 2021
Read this blogpost to help you understand whether your firm’s escalation framework is effective, and whether “information cascade” is relevant to your organisation.
17 May 2021
Creating thoughtful management information (MI) which provides Senior Managers with detailed insight into all matters within their remit (financial performance, risk tolerance, staffing issues, conduct risks etc.) remains a significant challenge for most firms and individual Senior Managers. That being the reality, what are the regulatory expectations with regards to MI? What are the general principles of good MI and what questions should firms and Senior Managers be asking themselves when assessing the quality of their MI?
13 May 2021
Senior Managers must take “reasonable steps” to ensure that their business is effectively controlled, complies with relevant requirements and that they delegate effectively. Fair enough, but what does this mean in practice and how should Senior Managers evidence the reasonable steps they take? This post considers the key ingredients to a successful reasonable steps assurance framework.
11 May 2021
Delegation is central to good management and the effective functioning of financial institutions. It is also an instrumental part of how Senior Managers discharge their regulatory responsibilities. In our latest post, we explore how Senior Managers can test whether their delegation functions effectively in practice and how it stacks up against the regulators’ expectations, particularly in light of the challenges of COVID-19 and the shift to ‘working from home’.
4 May 2021
Despite the significant number of banks in the UK operating via branch, most of the key principles of corporate governance relied upon by UK’s financial services regulators derive from rules and guidance applicable to UK listed companies. There are significant challenges with applying such principles to branches. This note explores the corporate governance expectations of UK branches, a selection of the key corporate governance challenges branches face and how they may be addressed.
20 April 2021
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an effective Board is key to the success of a regulated financial services firm. Regular reviews of Board’s effectiveness can be a useful tool for improving a Board’s performance. But how to make sure that your Board Effectiveness Review is effective?
15 April 2021
Last year’s Final Notice for Aviva raises five interesting questions for Boards to consider when reviewing their governance approach.
6 April 2021
The FCA has said financial services is at a “tipping point” in a journey to healthy, purposeful, safe, diverse and inclusive cultures that create healthy returns for shareholders. We explore the expectations of, and key actions for, Boards in delivering this outcome.
1 April 2021
The potential risks associated with groupthink are as important to Boards as to executive management committees. In this post we consider when groupthink might affect Boards, when criticism has been levied by the regulators and questions you should critically ask yourself to check the effectiveness of your Board governance approach.
18 March 2021
We have seen challenger banks and fintechs come under regulatory pressure to reform their governance structures along traditional bank lines as they scale. This has the comfort of familiarity, but it does not mean that it is always the right approach.
18 March 2021
The FCA’s CEO has this week emphasised the role of diversity and inclusion in creating a positive culture to support fair outcomes for customers. What questions should you be asking to ensure your firm meets regulatory expectations?
12 March 2021
The term “sludge audit” may not be part of the regulatory lexicon, but the idea that a business should walk in its customer’s shoes to understand the customer experience and potential drivers of poor outcomes is an activity that closely aligns to the FCA’s regulatory priorities.
10 March 2021
Corporate failures, including that of Carillion, have focused minds in the financial services sector on the precise role played by non-executive directors. Ever-increasing scrutiny from regulators on individuals’ roles and responsibilities sits alongside a broader public debate about the effectiveness of boards and how they are evaluated. In this climate it is important for both the firm and the individual NEDs to understand what is – and is not – part of the NED job description.
10 March 2021
The UK regulators are preparing to require firms to embed an operational resilience framework within BAU operations by 2024. The three-year transition hints at the significant design and implementation work that will need to be completed. This regulatory change, which comes hot on the heels of recent high-profile disruption in financial services and the Covid-19 pandemic, makes operational resilience the perfect case study when it comes to considering effective Board oversight and governance.