Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Tuesday 18 July, 2023. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Transact clients reach record high
The number of clients using the Transact platform has reached a record high, rising 3% to 229,000 at the end of the third quarter of 2023.
In a quarterly trading update, parent company IntegraFin Holdings said the digitalisation programme for the Transact platform is “going well and is being positively received by financial advisers”.
Annuity service
Financial advisers have railed against insurance companies after they faced difficulties arranging annuities for their clients due to poor service and long delays.
Aviva, Canada Life, L&G are some of the household insurers whose annuity service standards were found wanting.
Quote Of The Day
This is great news for poorer pensioners who are currently struggling to make ends meet and could be eligible for more help from the government.
– Alice Guy, head of pensions and savings, Interactive Investor on a pension credit trial that aims to boost awareness of the support
Stat Attack
With the FCA’s Consumer Duty requirements due to come into force at the end of July, the clock is ticking for financial services companies to get their head round the requirements and put the necessary strategies in place to ensure compliance.
Findings from customer experience experts, Watermelon highlight the scale and the importance of the challenge at hand.
56%
Of UK adults would be identified as vulnerable under the categories of the upcoming Consumer Duty regulations
8%
Of people with physical, mental or financial vulnerabilities say they have a financial goal and only 3% say they are able to save money easily
29%
Live with a physical or mental vulnerability are struggling to keep up with bills and payments
33%
Cite reducing debt as a financial ambition
Source: Watermelon
In Other News
The Cambridge Building Society has announced the appointment of three new non-executive directors to its board after its previous long standing board members reached the end of their nine-year limit terms.
The mutual will add Pauline Caldwell, Harriett Hunnable and Daniel Mundy to its team.
Caldwell was appointed to the board in April 2023 and is a global HR professional, MCIPD-qualified and holds a practitioner diploma in executive coaching and a systemic team coaching certificate via the academy of executive coaching.
Hunnable joined The Cambridge as a customer in 2000 and its board in April 2023 to help with its contribution to the community. She is a FN 100 Women in Finance holder and serves on critical benchmark oversight boards, advisory boards and works at the University of Cambridge on finance for climate and nature initiatives.
Mundy was appointed to the board in January this year following his observation of the leadership team in the months before, has undertaken various executive roles within financial services with a focus on mutuality.
Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc, has appointed Jill Barber as global head of distribution. She will join the business later this year subject to regulatory approval.
Barber will lead the teams across Aviva Investors responsible for Aviva Client, Institutional and Wealth sales activity in the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. She will also oversee Client Experience, Strategy and Planning, and Investment and Client Communications.
She will join from GAM Investments, where she has held the role of Global Head of Institutional Solutions since November 2020.
In a career spanning 25 years in investment management, Barber has also held senior roles at Jupiter Asset Management, Franklin Templeton Investments, Hermes Fund Management and Fidelity International.
Barber will succeed Louise Kay, who has decided to retire at the end of this year after three decades in the investment industry. Louise will continue to lead the distribution function until Barber’s arrival.
TIME Investments has hired product development expert Tom Mullard to take on the newly created role of business line director (tax).
He is responsible for the oversight and day-to-day management of the TIME tax services, including TIME:Advance, TIME:AIM and TIME:CTC.
His focus is to ensure that TIME remains “at the forefront” of financial advisers’ minds when considering Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning.
He will support TIME’s extensive sales and distribution team and keep abreast of all developments in the business relief market.
He will work across the business to make sure TIME continues to offer “best-in-class” investments and customer service, using his extensive experience of the tax-efficient investment market.
Prior to joining TIME, Mullard was at Downing LLP for over 12 years, where he was a director of the product team.
He initially joined as a fund accountant before taking on a new role in 2016 to establish a specialist team that focused on new product launches, fund structuring, strategy and development of existing products, and technical support for the sales team and to support investor reporting.
From Elsewhere
Buyout groups raise debt against portfolios to return cash as dealmaking slows (Financial Times)
NS&I blocks early withdrawals on savings account with £22.5bn invested (The Telegraph)
Long-feared corporate debt woes start to hit home (Reuters)
Did You See?
The Covid pandemic created a cultural shift that “ramped up” adviser engagement towards environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing.
This is what Castlefield partner for financial advice Olivia Bowen told Money Marketing.
According to Bowen the pandemic helped to “soften” the advice sector’s reluctance to embrace ESG and did the same for those in investment management.
Castlefield says it is known as ‘The Thoughtful Investor’ as it believes in investing clients’ assets in a responsible and sustainable way.
Bowen added that without Covid “we would have fewer ESG funds”.
