Sean McKinven's Newsround: 22 June

Hello. Last Tuesday was Bloomsday. For those not in the know, 16 June is the date in which the events written out by James Joyce in his notable novel Ulysses take place. It gets its name from advertising salesman and protagonist Leopold Bloom. What’s the significance? Well besides a lot of oddbods doing a lot of weird and wonderful things, dressed up in Edwardian costumes it’s just another day.

And really, what could fit that better? It’s a novel that is largely preoccupies itself with the thoughts and wanderings of Bloom as he goes about his day in Dublin, punctuated at intervals by the affectations of Stephen Dedalus.

It’s one of those books that in many ways is a victim of its prestige. Many are intimidated by the thought of the language, the density of the references, or pretentious academics setting out barriers to enjoyment if you don’t have a PhD level understanding of every line. If you enjoy reading give it a go; you will struggle over it a bit, but the general ring of things will come through. You should be able to follow the thread of the story and catch some lovely and pertinent insights along the way.

I am coincidentally about a third of the way through it myself. It’s not been my quickest reads, but Bloom’s thoughts and musings are a joy to read even if not fully grasped initially – and on a personal level it’s really interesting touring Dublin as someone who first visited it at not even a year old.

Some may remember I was diplomatically critical of the J.P Morgan summer reading list from a couple weeks ago, primarily as it was the second financial services curated reading list I went through that didn’t include a single novel. People may come at me and go, “these are busy people; what’s wrong with reading contemporary books on contemporary things which have contemporary findings that were found contemporaneously and are under 300 pages. What could Ulysses do for them?”

Well, cynically I would suggest that some of these folks read these books to flex their performative intellectuality at garden fetes.

But, putting on my Bloom hat and being optimistic despite things, most people are not entirely like that.

More idealistically I could say: “Yes, you’re right. What could a novel about an ordinary person doing ordinary things, who despite a sense of isolation, family troubles, prejudice, feelings about the stagnant state of politics, a sudden urge towards vegetarianism possibly say about anybody now? How could a novel that covers emerging technology, a changing media environment and complex notions of identity possibly make you think about our contemporary environment differently?”

Yes, it’d be difficult. And yes, you’d find yourself going “huh?”, but you’d also find bits of impressive relevance. Sometimes it’s nice to read something that doesn’t tell you how things are and you have to work it out by yourself. Yes in doing so it can help you think differently about platforms or at least the people that work for them. And yes I will stop now and let you get on with perusing the news yes, yes I will, I promise. Yes.

The News (Bloom didn’t managed to sell any advert space – too busy eating gorgonzola sandwiches and saving an aspirational poet from a kicking):

LANG CAT & CLIENT MENTIONS

‘No update Friday’: Why multi-million tech rollouts are alienating staff

Steve appears as a source in this one.

Source: Citywire NMA

Govt urged to do more over GDPR barriers facing targeted support

Mark Glover of Ortec gives his thoughts.

Source: FT Adviser

Platform reporting gaps leave investors facing HMRC fines

FSL research finds not enough support for ERI on platforms.

Source: Money Marketing

Investec partners with tech provider to expand international WM offering

SecuritEase partners with Investec.

Source: TheWealthNet

Intelliflo CEO on how its agentic AI tools will reshape advice

Nick Eatock talks agentic AI.

Source: Citywire NMA

Fintech firms can ‘capture minds’ of investors and help close advice gap

Platform One CEO with some thoughts.

Source: FT Adviser

Forget big tech, these are the firms to power up your portfolio

7IM’s Ben Kumar’s thoughts on an alt AI exposure.

Source: The Times

Aberdeen pilots Woven technology to streamline platform transfers

The partnership aims to address what has traditionally been one of the most time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks for advice firms.

Source: Money Marketing

Guardian cover shows ‘protection shouldn’t be for the affluent’

Source: FT Adviser

ADVISERS

‘Real business case’ for advisers to discuss philanthropy with clients

According to economic modelling, offering advice on philanthropy could increase client lifetime value by nearly 25 per cent by 2035.

Source: FT Adviser

How Brexit has left thousands of expats without an adviser

Appears to be a bit of an admin nightmare for some.

Source: Citywire NMA

Exclusive: Advice firms warned against ‘automating dysfunction’

Some interesting findings in the report by The Flower Group, Plannr and Seccl.

Source: Money Marketing

PROTECTION

IP application volumes up 56% since 2022, new report finds

According to the Income Protection Task Force’s latest Profile of an IP Customer report.

Source: Money Marketing

REGULATION & POLICY

Where are we 3 years on from consumer duty?

“Consumer sentiment towards the financial services industry has increased following the introduction of consumer duty, according to data analysis by Smart Money People.” Funny that.

Source: FT Adviser

Data protection rule blocks targeted support for 75% of customers

There are concerns that the 25% are also likely to be engaged in their finances and are not the intended audience for targeted support.

Source: Citywire NMA

The FCA is opening the door for innovation – advisers should be paying attention

Eyebrows are raising among some, more than likely.

Source: Professional Adviser

FCA targets wealthy individuals with tougher enforcement proposals

Fears that the current fines are not a sufficient enough of a deterrent.

Source: FT Adviser

Rathbones hit with client freeze after FCA review; shares fall 18%

Issues around Consumer Duty among others cited.