Consumer Duty: 11 questions your implementation plan should try to answer

Come 1 November there will be two kinds of firms – those who have their Consumer Duty plans in place, and those who didn’t quite hit the deadline. The FCA expects firms’ management teams (essentially, this is where the buck stops – for larger firms it will be the board) to have agreed their implementation […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update will look after you

Hello hello, me again after a week’s break from Updating at a keyboard in favour of Updating anyone who cared to drop by at HomeGame 2 last week. Thanks to everyone who came along – just under 170 in the room and nearly 300 online – and I hope you had a nice time. I […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update gets it and is listening

Good afternoon, Mike here. Right about now (assuming you are reading this on Wednesday lunchtime/afternoon) we will be smack in the middle of our second #langcatlive for 2022, the HomeGame in Edinburgh. If you’ve missed out you can catch up via the socials and we’ll also post the highlights on YouTube in the days to […]
The FCA motivation behind Consumer Duty

The initiative formerly known as the New Consumer Duty, and now generally referred to as the Consumer Duty, was launched by the FCA with something of a fanfare in July. You might be putting the finishing touches on your firm’s implementation plan, or you might be about to fire up the coffee machine and roll […]
Consumer Duty: Where TCF failed to tread?

When the FCA’s Consumer Duty finally takes effect next year, it will be the culmination of a longer journey than many might realise. Because while the regulator first sought views on ‘a duty of care and potential alternative approaches’ in 2018, calls for some form of duty of care in financial services had been growing […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update is on the edge

Hello again, welcome to your autumn but go easy on the heating. I have a couple of announcements this week, but the main one is that the Update is now denominated in dollars and so will cost you just a little more each month, but that’s a small price to pay for growth, amirite? Almost […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update is living in a fragmented world

And so it came to pass that the Platform of the Year Awards were held on a Tuesday night, and Mark had not lined anyone else up to write the Update and lo, he looked and he found that it was really not good. But given that the damage was self-inflicted he had no choice […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update is happy to be proved wrong

Steve here, subbing in for Mark. It’s been a while. How’s it going? I’ve had a book kicking about the bedroom for months now, How to be wrong by that polarising fella off the Twitter, James O’Brien. Just never got round to starting it. Those algorithmically-driven midnight YouTube death spirals aren’t going to watch themselves […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update delivers delivers delivers delivers

You know what? I can’t even. So here’s a joke instead. Why are ants always getting sick? Because they only have tiny antibodies. Thank you. I’m not here all week. Might take to my bed for the next two years. Quite tempted to leave the Update there. But I won’t. Instead, let’s have a think […]
The Top Class Wednesday Update feels your ennui

Well, we’re in it now. 22% inflation, anyone? And the solution is…to drill more oil wells which might be operational in 25 years’ time. I think the only rational response here is either to go round blindfolded and ear-plugged in an attempt to avoid all this, or to get absolutely stocious and watch Mikael Gorbachev’s […]