Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Friday 23 June, 2023. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
AI boost
Aveni, the artificial intelligence (AI) fintech business has announced the release of a new platform, Aveni Assist.
It aims to enhance the productivity of an adviser by up to three times.
Aveni Assist, the AI assistant, has been designed specifically for the financial advice market to transform administrative tasks.
Help here?
For all the challenges posed by the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review more than a decade ago, few across financial services would now lament those reforms.
The advice sector is in rude health and clients are benefiting from a more professional, better qualified industry.
The Financial Conduct Authority and the Treasury are now jointly looking at ways to address the advice gap and the early signs suggest the review could make genuine progress in dealing with this thorny issue.
Quote Of The Day
It’s important that customers feel comfortable contacting us if they feel they are getting into financial difficulty because whilst every customer’s situation is different we have a range of options that we can use to help them find their way through.
– Ian Stuart, chief executive officer, HSBC UK on the support home owners will be getting with their mortgages
Stat Attack
A new report by Aviva has looked at the support employers are giving to older workers. It found:
10%
Of employers surveyed have in the last year introduced support for retaining employees aged over 50 years old
76%
Of employers think it is important to retain employees aged over 50
32%
Of those firms say it is very important
Source: Aviva
In Other News
The International Sustainability Standards Board, formed with the support of the G20 and G7, has published a comprehensive international baseline standard for sustainability disclosures.
The S2 standard for Climate Related Disclosures is notable for recommending that companies disclose climate transition plans.
They are emerging as a key tool to support corporate accountability and the delivery of net zero targets.
A new study from Juniper Research, on payment markets, forecasts that merchant losses from online payment fraud will exceed $362bn globally between 2023 to 2028, with losses of $91bn alone in 2028.
A rise in eCommerce transactions in emerging markets is driving this growth. Merchants there are facing new threats, such as an increased use of AI for attacks.
Online payment fraud is where cybercriminals conduct false or illegal transactions online, using a number of different fraud strategies, such as phishing or account takeover.
From Elsewhere
Exclusive: Deutsche Bank tells investors some of their Russian shares are missing (Reuters)
Scientists and industry leaders warn UK and EU over Horizon delays (Financial Times)
Rishi Sunak urges people to hold their nerve on interest rates (BBC News)
Did You See?
Catch up on Money Marketing’s most popular stories from last week. David Montgomery, MD of M&G Wealth, will be leaving the company in August and trouble-hit platform tech firm Bravura has changed its chief executive officer Libby Roy with immediate effect.
You can read them here.
