PIMFA Weekly News Bulletin - 17 October 2022

PIMFA

UK Government commits to corporation tax increase

Following adverse market reaction, the Prime Minister has committed to a rise in Corporation Tax to 25% effective April 2023. You will recall that the September 23rd Fiscal Statement committed the UK to freezing the level of corporation tax at 19%. The government has reneged on this commitment in a move that will increase public finances by £18bn.

The Prime Minister has also replaced the Chancellor, appointing Jeremy Hunt instead. We have written to Mr Hunt congratulating him on his new role.

New PIMFA website functionality

On all the webpages on the PIMFA website you will now see the below icon in the right hand bottom corner of each page.

Clicking on this button via any device will allow you to tailor our website to your individual needs and benefits include the ability to:

Make text larger so it is easier to read

Change the text font so that it is Dyslexia friendly

Pause the microsite background videos

If you have any questions, please email us at: systems@pimfa.co.uk

City Hive Cross-Company Mentoring Scheme

City Hive are pleased to announce that applications are NOW OPEN for the City Hive Cross Company Mentoring Scheme, in association with #TalkAboutBlack and The Race & Ethnicity Workstream of The Diversity Project. Now in its third year, the programme supports women, those who identify as female and both men and women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds looking to develop and progress their careers. If you would like to be considered as either a mentee or a mentor, please visit the website to see if the programme is right for you and to apply.

The programme commences in January and runs for nine months. More information is available here or you can email mentoring@cityhive.co.uk

Britain’s financial services exports

In a new report TheCityUK explores the large contribution Britain’s regions and nations make to overall UK industry export activity. Financial services were the biggest exporting services sector in every British region and nation in 2020, apart from the South East and the East of England. ‘Exporting from across Britain: Financial and related professional services 2022’, shows that 43% of Britain’s £129.7bn of financial and related professional services exports originated outside London in 2020.

Between 2019 20, total financial and related professional services exports across Britain rose by 8.4%, with the South East (9.1% of the total £129.7bn), Scotland (6.8%) and North West (5.4%). All regions and nations across Britain generated trade surpluses in financial services in 2020. London had the largest financial services trade surplus of £34bn, followed by the South East (£5.1bn) and Scotland (£4.6bn). Between 2016-20, London experienced the strongest average annual growth of industry exports at 13%, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (12%), the North East (10%), and Scotland (9%).

In terms of the destination of British financial services exports, 71% went to non EU countries and 29% went to the EU in 2020. For the UK as a whole, the US was by far the largest destination for financial services exports, accounting for 34% of total financial services exports in 2020. Other notable non EU destinations for industry exports were Japan (3.5%) and Canada (3.4%).

Webinar: Modernising the Client Onboarding process in Wealth Management institutions

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. At many UK wealth management firms, the onboarding process for new clients is outdated and inefficient, involving many manual, paper based processes.

This webinar demonstrates how digitalisation can help financial institutions balance the need for regulatory compliance with the delivery of a first class service right from the very first interaction.

It will feature a keynote presentation from Kevin Sloane, Senior Policy Advisor at PIMFA, who will be joined by experts Jon Cosson, Head of IT & CISO at JM Finn and Tessa Pollock, Head of Portfolio Delivery at Quilter, for an expert panel session.

Topics covered will include:

• Personalising the onboarding process and reducing delays and duplication;

• Understanding client expectations for digital services in a post Covid world;

• The role of technology in supporting smoother onboarding.

Sign up online today to join the webinar and have a chance to put your questions about onboarding to the panel.

Cyber Security Awareness Month

The most used method of exploitation performed by criminals is done via phishing campaigns. We’re in the third week of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and PIMFA Plus Partner Mitigo are sharing a round up of your main red flags if you do receive a phish:

• If the email seems too good to be true, or seems suspicious it probably is. Trust your intuition

• Criminals will often add a sense of urgency to their phishing campaigns the language will push for you to react quickly before deadline.

• The email will be requesting money or sensitive information such as credentials official sources will never ask you to supply these via email so don’t give them out.

• Criminals pretend to be an authority figure or reputable company to gain your trust. Hint: don’t trust them.

• Poor grammar or spelling may be the most obvious red flag if it’s badly written, it’s bad news.

• Suspicious links or attachments may be included. Don’t click you can see what the real website is by hovering over URL, and don’t open any attachments unless you are absolutely sure they are legitimate.

• The email address used is public domain or misspelt an official source would never have a normal gmail account associated, and double check that it’s not from something like “Microsuft” instead of Microsoft.

• Whilst you’re looking at the email address, does it match the sender’s name or the company they’re purporting to be from? If not, you’ve probably caught a phish.

• The final red flag would be threatening language aka “Do this or else”. No reputable company would speak to their

customers like this if your back’s up, it’s probably for good reason.

If you’re still not sure, it’s best to verify independently of the original source so if you’ve got an email, give the person or company a phone call to see if they did send the message. Use the number from their official website, rather than any included in the message.

Never respond or react to the phish just ignore it and delete it.

For more helpful cybersecurity advice, follow Mitigo on LinkedIn, or head to their blog.

Latest PIMFA Press Releases

PIMFA delighted to welcome Courtney Havers’ Ray Tuffield to its Board

Fiscal Statement reaction from Liz Field, Chief Executive of PIMFA: “Inflation remains key problem facing households and the economy.”

PIMFA welcomes extension of the Consumer Duty implementation timeline

PIMFA announces shortlist for second Diversity & Inclusion Awards

PIMFA updates Future of Supervision paper and calls for more improvements from the FCA

Read more press releases here

PIMFA Press Coverage

The Independent: Consumer champions and finance bodies press for action on online fraud

London Evening Standard: Consumer champions and finance bodies press for action on online fraud

Daily Mail: Consumer champions and finance bodies press for action on online fraud

Yahoo! News: Consumer champions and finance bodies press for action on online fraud

Professional Adviser: Why advisers need to act on climate change and how it can be done

See more of PIMFA in the press

Latest PIMFA Journal

Read our latest magazine here

Latest PIMFA Consultation Paper Responses

PIMFA’s response to FCA CP22/14: Broadening retail access to the long term asset fund

PIMFA response to consumer redress scheme for unsuitable advice to transfer out of the British Steel Pension Scheme

PIMFA calls for FCA to be given power to direct Ofcom to remove fraudulent content in Online Safety Bill

PIMFA’s response to the FCA Compensation Framework Review

Read them all here

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