Insights

A soothsayer is a person who is supposed to be able to foresee the future. In the eyes of their clients, financial advisers and paraplanners are assumed to have this attribute. Advisers, assisted by their paraplanners, look to the future in terms of ensuring that their clients have adequate retirement income, look to the future in terms of inheritance tax planning and look to the future in ensuring that wealth is maintained and passed down to future generations.

Carbon pricing is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by placing a financial cost on the carbon content of fossil fuels or the emissions themselves. Carbon markets allow businesses and organisations to offset their emissions by buying additional ‘credits’. But how effective have these mechanisms been at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions?

Consumer Duty effectively means that banks and financial services companies can no longer just say they act to deliver good outcomes for their retail customers. Going forward, they must prove it and to do that a lot of change is needed.

If your in customer services, how can you support customers who find themselves in financial distress? Interest rate rises, out of control inflation, supply chain disruption and an all-round increase in the cost of living are creating financial hardship – particularly among borrowers.

Over the past decade, hardly a single bank has escaped significant risk or compliance issues. Visiting Professor, Emmanuel Rondeau looks at the significance of recent shareholder action at Credit Suisse.

Dr Christian Spindler is a faculty member at the Centre for Digital Banking & Finance and the founder of Sustainaccount. He explains how fintech can measure environmental, social and corporate government (ESG) data and help the world transition to a greener and more sustainable economy.

Green mortgages reward borrowers with lower interest rates for buying energy-efficient homes. Richard Northedge looks at this new market – including lenders and the level of consumer demand for home loans. And he questions whether its future is sustainable in the long term.

Despite moves to increase equality and diversity in banking and finance and on company boards, disabled inclusion has been largely overlooked. This is a missed opportunity for financial services companies, says Jacob J Meagher.

Helene Panzarino examines how the closure of bank branches and the move to online banking is affecting rural communities and people without access to digital. She reflects on changing customer relationships and looks at a possible fintech-led solution to ensure financial inclusion.