This highly anticipated follow-up to last year’s praised report with the Income Protection Task Force (IPTF) leverages insights from over 50,000 applications to reveal a younger, more informed, and proactive IP customer.

These reports are building a foundation of robust, insight-based resources that advisers and industry professionals can rely on year after year. Last year’s findings reignited conversations, energised training, and inspired new approaches - and this year’s report continues that momentum, helping people deliver better outcomes, raise the profile of IP, and make smarter decisions.

By putting these insights into practice, advisers, providers, and protection specialists are better equipped to adapt, innovate, and meet evolving client needs.

The rise of the multi-benefit plan

One of the most significant trends we've seen is the growing popularity of multi-benefit (menu) plans. While applications for single IP products have seen a huge 73% increase since 2017, applications for multi-benefit products that include IP have also soared by 42% since 2022.

In fact, in 2024, multi-benefit applications accounted for 48% of all IP applications. This shift suggests that advisers are embracing more holistic conversations about financial resilience.

A younger, smarter customer

The data reveals that those opting for multi-benefit plans are, on average, four years younger than those buying individual products. This younger demographic is showing a preference for long-term security.

For example, multi-benefit IP customers are more likely to have a longer deferred period, with a 3-month period being the most common choice. This choice may be a way for them to balance affordability today with future financial security.

We also found that younger customers are more likely to select policies that escalate with inflation (RPI-linked). In 2024, over a quarter of multi-benefit policies (26.17%) were sold on an increasing Max benefit basis.

Changing choices and consistent trends

Beyond age, we saw other notable shifts in 2024:

Full term policies are back

• For individual IP products, Full Term applications became more popular, making up 50.8% of applications in 2024, up from 46.3% in 2023.

Higher average benefits:

• Average monthly benefit amounts have increased since 2023. For individual policies, the average benefit is £2,238.66, while for multi-benefit plans, it's £1,826.13. The 41-45 age group had the highest average monthly benefit for individual products.

Who’s buying which policies:

• For individual policies, medical professionals and administrators were the most common applicants. For multi-benefit policies, administrators were the most common.

So, what's next for the industry?

Our 2024 data reveals the evolving nature of the IP market, shaped by more informed consumers and comprehensive adviser conversations.

The IP market has made real strides in recent years, with advisers, providers, and protection specialists working hard to raise awareness, expand policy options, and improve access for more people. There’s more choice than ever before, and the industry’s efforts are helping clients see the value of Income Protection.

Yet the "protection gap" remains - according to AMI Viewpoint Report 2024, only 7% of the UK population holds an IP policy, despite 53% recognising its value. This report aims to help advisers spark more conversations - just as our previous report did - and support more people in making Income Protection a core part of their financial plans.

As a broker, you’ll know just how many clients are struggling to take that first step onto the property ladder. Rising rents, soaring house prices, and the ever-increasing cost of living means that saving for a deposit can often feel out of reach.

The result? More and more young adults are living with their parents for longer. For many, moving back in – or never moving out in the first place – feels like the only way to save enough.

But the reality is, it’s not even that simple.

Even with savings and a deposit, plenty still find that once they move into their new home, mortgage and living costs are simply too much to manage comfortably.

The reality behind the front door

Research shows just how stuck first-time buyers are feeling right now:

• Around five million adults still live with their parents in England and Wales**.
• And 98% of them can’t afford to buy the average first-time buyer home in their local area, based on their own financial situation*.

And it’s not only adult children feeling stuck. Parents often put their own plans on hold when kids live at home for longer. Many who want to downsize can’t – even though doing so could free up around £72,400 in equity, or save them £2,400 a year in rent^^.

For households with lower incomes, that equity could make up as much as 60% of their total non-property wealth*. That could make a big difference – especially for parents who want to give their child a boost onto the property ladder.

Fairer access to mortgages, now.

At Skipton Building Society, we don't think access to the housing market is fair. First-time buyers deserve a better chance, and brokers deserve better tools, insights and products to help make that happen.

That’s why we’ve developed our Home Affordability Index – to shine a light on the real challenges first-time buyers face. We want to support you with products and insights that could make a genuine difference for your clients.

A full range for first-time buyers

We know the housing crisis won’t be solved by lenders alone. Until first-time buyers can both afford to buy and live in their homes, the system isn’t working.

Currently, it feels like many first-time buyers are at risk of being permanently locked out of the housing market. But that’s where you come in – as a broker, you’re the bridge between the challenge and the solution. This is why it’s so important you have the right tools, research and products to help you present realistic and responsible solutions to your clients.

That’s why we’re also campaigning for bigger changes from the government – like more tax-free savings products, making sure stamp duty land tax thresholds keep up with inflation and turning the government’s homebuilding targets into reality. We’re pushing for a housing market that truly works for first-time buyers.

^{*Skipton Group Home Affordability Index 2025.}

^{^72Point Survey 2025, commissioned by Skipton Building Society.}

^{**Office for National Statistics (2021)}

^{^^ Equity release is estimated using HOA data and adjusted to account for differences between the house prices observed in the dataset and those reported by the ONS. The figures shown are based on the median value of equity that would be released through downsizing across this group.}

^{For intermediary use only.}

^{The Skipton Group Home Affordability Index is not a benchmark for the purposes of UK Benchmark Regulation, nor for the purposes of any other legislation or regulation. The Skipton Group Home Affordability Index is produced for information purposes only and must not be used or relied upon for commercial purposes including any decisions and/or advice. Skipton Building Society is not responsible for any decisions made based on this information.}

In today’s evolving retirement landscape, the binary choice between income drawdown and annuities is increasingly outdated. For professional financial advisers, the opportunity lies not in choosing one over the other, but in strategically combining both within a single pension wrapper to deliver a more resilient, flexible, and client-centric retirement income strategy.

Drawdown: flexibility and growth potential

Income drawdown remains a powerful tool for clients seeking control, flexibility, and the potential for capital growth in retirement. It allows retirees to tailor withdrawals to their lifestyle needs, adapt to changing circumstances, and remain invested in growth assets. For clients with sufficient risk tolerance and a longer time horizon, drawdown can provide a dynamic income stream that evolves with market conditions and personal goals.

However, drawdown is not without its challenges. Market volatility, sequencing risk, and longevity uncertainty can all erode capital and undermine income sustainability. This is where the strategic integration of annuities becomes not just beneficial, but essential.

Guarantees: certainty and peace of mind

Annuity type solutions offer something drawdown cannot: guaranteed income. Whether through a lifetime annuity or a fixed-term product, annuities provide a dependable income floor that can cover essential expenses, regardless of market performance or lifespan. In an environment of higher annuity rates, the value proposition of guaranteed income is stronger than it has been in years.

The power of combining both

The real innovation lies in integrating both strategies within a single pension framework. This combined approach enables advisers to divide retirement income into three categories: essential, lifestyle, and discretionary. The guaranteed portion can be allocated to cover core expenses such as housing, utilities, and food. Depending on the client’s assessed capacity for loss, it may also support some or all lifestyle spending. The remaining assets can then be directed toward funding additional lifestyle choices, travel, and legacy goals.

This dual approach also enhances behavioural outcomes. Clients with a guaranteed income floor are often more comfortable taking investment risk with their drawdown pot, knowing their basic needs are covered. It also provides a psychological buffer during market downturns, reducing the likelihood of panic-driven decisions.

Modern pension solutions now make it easier than ever to implement and manage both solutions within a single wrapper. This not only simplifies administration but also enhances tax efficiency and reporting. Advisers can seamlessly adjust the balance between drawdown and annuity over time, responding to changes in client circumstances, market conditions, or health status.

Retirement planning is no longer about choosing between flexibility and security. It’s about intelligently combining both to deliver a tailored, resilient income strategy. As financial advisers, embracing this hybrid model positions us to better meet the complex and evolving needs of our clients. In a world where certainty is scarce and longevity is increasing, the ability to offer both growth and guarantees is not just modern it’s essential.

M&G the home of retirement planning

Iress’ new datafeed from Aware Super is now available in Xplan via IressNet - our data connectivity service that facilitates the integration of data from external parties to Xplan users.

This new connection empowers financial advisers with faster access to high-quality client data, supporting more streamlined advice delivery and enhancing member outcomes by giving advisers time back to focus on their clients.

This latest integration reinforces the critical role of automated datafeeds in driving efficiency across the wealthtech industry, while ensuring Australians are better supported on their path to retirement.

What does the Aware Super datafeed supply?

The Aware Super datafeed delivers a broad and detailed set of data directly into Xplan, ensuring advisers have timely and reliable information for every client interaction and they can easily view and track client accounts.The datafeed includes:

• Portfolio data, including transactions and balances
• Client focus superannuation data, including eligible service date, beneficiaries, component balances and insurance
• Client focus pension data, including beneficiaries, purchase prices and payments.

Why this matters: Simpler, smarter advice workflows

With this new datafeed in place, advisers who are registered with Aware Super can now:

• Eliminate manual data entry and reduce administrative tasks
• Access current, accurate data for better client reporting and projections
• Spend more time with clients delivering value and less time chasing paperwork.

With over one million Australians invested with Aware Super, this integration has the potential to positively impact advice delivery at scale. By making client data more accessible, accurate, and secure, advisers are better equipped to guide members toward confident, informed retirement decisions.

Powered by IressNet: Connected, scalable, and secure

The new Aware Super datafeed in Xplan is delivered through IressNet, which supports one of the most extensive datafeed networks in Australia. IressNet currently has 170 datafeeds, with coverage across:

• Investment platforms, brokers, fund managers, superannuation funds and insurers
• Daily data updates: valuations, transactions, insurance, tax data, and more.

The addition of the Aware Super datafeed enhances the breadth of our ecosystem - helping advisers work with more clients, across more accounts, with less effort.

In future, we’re looking to add more datafeed integrations across superannuation and insurance, in addition to platforms and fund managers, where customer demand is high.

Supporting better outcomes for Australians

At Iress, we’re proud to support the advice profession with technology that empowers productivity, compliance, and meaningful client engagement.

Advisers using Xplan can now enable the Aware Super datafeed through IressNet.

For assistance in setting up the new feed, reach out to your Iress account manager or visit the Iress Community Portal for setup guides and support.

Together, we’re making financial advice simpler, smarter, and more connected - for a stronger retirement future for all Australians.

More annuities were sold in the UK last year than at any time since the introduction of pension freedoms – a clear sign that guaranteed income is firmly back on the radar for those planning for retirement.¹

In today’s uncertain economic climate, this record-breaking swing has been fuelled by a growing consumer demand for financial certainty in later life, combined with the appeal of stronger annuity rates.

Standard Life’s Annuity Rates Tracker shows that average rates reached 7.72% in May 2025 - the highest level in a decade – making annuities a far more compelling option for clients seeking both stability and value.²

Both these upward trends represent a growing opportunity for advisers. In fact, according to the ABI, 36% of annuity buyers took advice in 2024 – up from 29% the year before.¹ This again reflects a clear shift as greater numbers look for professional support in order to navigate their retirement income decisions. And this is backed up by our own sales data which suggests the proportion of advised sales for annuities continues to grow.

The need for guarantees with a bit more flex

Since the pension freedoms were introduced ten years ago, the shape of retirement has continued to evolve. Where a hard stop to working life was once the expectation for most, as many as 2 in 5 people (42%) now plan to ease into their later years by reducing their working hours³ – and fewer than 1 in 8 (13%) say their retirement will be triggered by reaching a specific age. For the majority, it’s driven by affordability, health, and being able to enjoy life.⁴

Today, nearly nine in ten (85%) expect to rely on their State Pension to help fund retirement, but with eligibility starting at age 66, bridging the income gap is a real concern. In fact, 75% of over-50s say it’s an important issue. Indeed, one in five over-50s (19%) of those who have or plan to purchase a fixed-term annuity are doing so to help plug the income gap.³

Many will turn to their savings to cover the shortfall – 1 in 3 (33%) withdraw lump sums from pensions, similar numbers use cash savings, and 16% start using drawdown.³ While these strategies can help, they risk depleting resources too early and compromising long-term financial resilience.

This explains why fixed-term annuities are gaining particular traction in the market.

These products offer guaranteed income for terms as short as three years, with the flexibility to reassess options later - ideal for clients who want income certainty without committing to a lifetime annuity.

To meet this demand, Standard Life launched the Guaranteed Fixed-term Income product. It allows clients to choose a term between three and 25 years, with optional features like inflation protection and death benefits. At the end of the term, clients can access a maturity value or switch to another retirement product.

With more clients seeking advice and more flexible retirement options available, now is the time to explore how fixed-term annuities can support your clients’ evolving needs – and how you can help to lead that conversation.

^Sources:

^{1 ABI, February 2025}

^{2 Standard Life Annuity Rates Tracker, May 2025}

^{3 Opinium conducted research on behalf of Standard Life between 25 July and 12 August 2024 among 2,000 people over the age of 50}

^{4 Retirement Voice, Standard Life, 2024}

In capital markets, technology has evolved from an operational enabler to a strategic force shaping the industry's future.

With rising client expectations, regulatory scrutiny and the demand for agility, firms are re-evaluating how their tech stacks drive performance, resilience and competitive edge.

Rather than relying on monolithic systems, firms are embracing modular, interoperable platforms that bring together the best tools for each function while maintaining a unified workflow.

This approach is at the heart of the ‘Best of Breed’ strategy, which is rapidly gaining momentum.

The big shift

The more traditional single vendor suites offered simplicity, but integration was costly, customisation was limited, and vendor lock-in was the norm. Security was also a concern, with data privileges and governance rules often complex and error-prone under legacy systems.

Fast forward to today, and the landscape has changed dramatically.

Firms now expect their technology partners to offer open APIs, plug-and-play compatibility and the freedom to tailor solutions to their unique needs. This shift is driven by several factors:

• The rise of cloud-native platforms that make integration faster and more scalable.
• A growing appetite for innovation, with firms wanting to experiment with AI, advanced analytics, and alternative trading models.
• Regulatory pressure to improve transparency, auditability, and risk controls across systems.

In short, firms want choice, control, and agility and they’re no longer willing to compromise.

Best of Breed means choosing the right tool for the right job, whether it’s trading, connectivity, risk management, data or analytics. But, rather than relying on a single vendor for everything, firms can build a tailored ecosystem that reflects their business priorities. So, a tech stack is assembled using the most effective solution for each component.

The advantages are obvious:

• It enables faster innovation by allowing firms to adopt new technologies without overhauling their entire infrastructure.
• It reduces stagnant components and gives firms more control over their workflows.
• It allows for targeted problem-solving, especially in complex areas where specialised tools outperform generalist platforms.

We’ve seen this play out across the industry. Traditional single-vendor suites are slower to innovate due to their design. Updating one component often requires changes across the entire system, which is a costly and time-consuming process. In contrast, modular platforms enable firms to isolate and upgrade specific components without disrupting the entire system.

At Iress, we’ve embraced this shift by building a product stack that’s open, interoperable, and modular.

At the heart of our interoperability strategy is MyIress, a fully interoperable web-based application, built with a modular design to connect seamlessly with your workflows. We’ve also extended these capabilities to our trusted desktop application Iress Pro, ensuring a consistent experience across environments. The Iress FIX Hub (IFH) serves as a global connectivity network enabling seamless integration with complementary applications and data sources. And, by leveraging industry standards such as FDC3, FIX and Open APIs, we empower clients to build unified, scalable trading and market data solutions, tailored to their specific needs.

We focus on our strengths, and we partner with others to complement our capabilities. That’s the essence of Best of Breed. Whether it’s data analytics, compliance tools, or messaging services, our clients can plug in the components they need and leave out the ones they don’t.

This flexibility is especially valuable in today’s market, where firms face increasingly complex challenges. The ability to tailor solutions is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity.

The integration challenge

Of course, integrating multiple systems isn’t always easy; the challenges and pain points are well known across the industry. Traditional integration models often involve a time-consuming back-and-forth between vendors, with smaller players bearing the brunt of the effort and cost.

Point-to-point integrations can be expensive to build and maintain, especially when you’re dealing with multiple unique systems. And there’s a real risk of falling into the sunk cost fallacy by keeping legacy integrations in place long after they’ve outlived their usefulness, simply because they were expensive to build.

That’s why open standards, such as APIs, FIX messaging protocols and Model Context Protocol (MCP) are essential. They reduce the friction of integration and make it easier for systems to communicate. At Iress, we’ve made these standards a cornerstone of our architecture, helping clients avoid the pitfalls of legacy integration and build solutions that are fit for purpose.

Open standards allow systems to communicate in real time, share data securely, and trigger workflows across platforms. Combined, they create a common language for trading and connectivity.

Iress is positioned to champion this approach by embedding open standards into its new and existing Products. This means clients can begin automating workflows across trading, compliance, and reporting while scaling operations by adding new modules or partners as needed, without costly custom development.

In essence, these open standards enable a tech stack to become a dynamic ecosystem that adapts to the evolving needs of a business.

More control

One of the most significant advantages of an interoperable, widget-based platform is the extensive control it provides for customising workflows to create unique propositions.

No two firms operate the same way. Whether it’s a boutique asset manager or a global trading desk, the freedom to tailor their systems to match their business processes is critical.

For example, a firm might:

• create custom dashboards for portfolio managers
• automate risk alerts based on proprietary thresholds
• integrate ESG data into trading decisions.

By supporting these kinds of adaptations, Iress helps firms turn technology into a strategic asset.

From our perspective, workflow customisation is arguably the most important aspect of a firm’s product strategy. It’s how firms differentiate their services, optimise operations, and meet compliance needs. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in making our product stack configurable.

The shift to cloud-native infrastructure has also transformed onboarding and deployment. What used to take weeks or months can now be done in less than a day. This agility and pace is crucial for firms looking to expand into new asset classes or regions without being burdened by manual processes or infrastructure constraints.

What’s ahead

In a world where change is constant and complexity is increasing, interoperability will be the defining feature of trading infrastructure. The rise of AI, alternative data, and real-time analytics will require platforms that can integrate, interpret, and act on diverse inputs.

Modular systems won’t just offer flexibility, they’ll enable intelligence. They’ll allow firms to orchestrate smart workflows, leverage data-driven insights, and adapt quickly to regulatory and market changes.

At Iress, we’re committed to supporting this future. Our product strategy is built around openness, modularity, and client-led innovation. We’re not just responding to market trends, we’re shaping the infrastructure that defines them.

We’re not just responding to the future of trading technology. We’re building it.

This article was originally published in SIAA Monthly September 2025.

When approaching the subject of protection with clients, it’s important to consider the perception your client holds over their level of financial resilience and how this might impact the conversation. Financial resilience is a concept we explore closely within our Reaching Resilience report.

In our survey, we saw that 7 in 10 workers would rank themselves to be “financially resilient” or “very financially resilient”. In the rest of our report, we very quickly uncovered this theme of an optimism bias which plays throughout the research.

So, if your client holds these assumptions about their financial security, how can you be prepared to handle what I call “unqualified objections”?

“I would be able to rely on other sources to get by.”

When asked what they’d rely on if they couldn’t work because of illness or injury for more than 2 months, the top three responses were savings (47%), occupational sick pay (32%) and partner’s income and savings (19%). As part of a good fact-find, you might already have the information at hand to encounter these objections.

You can open the conversation up to handle these objections face on by asking: What would you turn to if you couldn’t work because of illness or injury?

“It would only impact me.”

Your client might not explicitly hold this assumption, but another insight from our research demonstrates the wider impact a loss in income has.

The average UK worker has 3 people who rely on their income. In this year’s research, we included pets into the fold, and found that an additional 29% also have a pet that depends on them for food, shelter, and general wellbeing.

It’s likely to be something that crops up organically in your conversations when talking protection, but expanding the scope of what we typically define as a dependent can get your clients to consider who their income supports. Responses from our survey included children, grown up children, stepchildren, parents, and even housemates.

Consider asking clients: Who does your income support? This opens the discussion for what the impact would be for them.

“It won’t happen to me.”

We asked workers what they consider their chances of suffering a serious illness, being off work for 2 months or more due to illness or injury or passing away within the next ten years.

Nearly half of the working population don’t believe that any of the listed events will happen in the next decade. We also saw that people were slightly less likely to consider themselves to be at risk of being off work due to illness or injury compared to suffering a serious illness.

Tools such as the LV= Risk Reality Calculator puts into perspective the individual protection risks your client faces before retirement. Our latest Reaching Resilience report also presents protection insights to help power more impactful conversations with your clients.

^{Unless stated otherwise, the data used in this report comes from a survey of 2,720 nationally representative UK workers conducted for LV= by Opinium between 15 – 25 October 2024.}

Transact’s integration with Xplan has just been enhanced - enabling Advisers to access a rich array of data feeds directly from Transact, enhancing data access, efficiency, accuracy, and client service.

Advisers working with Transact can empower their firm by automating data delivery into Xplan, reducing import/transcription errors and amplifying advisory insights.

Thanks to the new “Transaction History Datafeed”, Xplan can now ingest additional batch data feeds, typically processed outside of live workflows, ranging across several key areas:

• All transactional history – Comprehensive logs of trades and order activity - since inception
• Valuations & pricing – Daily fund prices, historical valuations, asset values and NAV updates.
• Cash flow transactions – Deposits, withdrawals, contributions, fees, dividends, etc.
• Corporate actions – Dividends, stock splits, distributions and more from holdings.
• Portfolio holdings – Full details on assets and positions managed via Transact.

It’s a win-win: efficiency gains for advisers + richer, more timely advice for clients.

Why this enhancement matters? Integrating this enhanced set of Transact data feeds into Xplan delivers huge advantages for advisers:

Positioning Xplan as a central hub for adviser workflows

This enhanced integration positions Xplan as a central hub for adviser workflows, ensuring Transact-managed assets fit seamlessly into comprehensive client portfolios. The outcome? Better data quality, faster turnarounds, and deeper client service.

The Xplan–Transact integration is a decisive move toward smarter, data-driven client advice. With access to timely holdings, pricing, transactions, and corporate actions—automatically pulled into Xplan, advisers can build richer, more connected client relationships while reducing administrative drag.

Existing User? Find out how to enable Transact on here

Interested in how Xplan can help your business, please contact our sales team here.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, and in financial services it is acting as both a powerful ally and a formidable threat. On one side, AI strengthens our defences: automating threat detection, accelerating response times, and helping safeguard sensitive client data. On the other, it’s being weaponised by cybercriminals to launch smarter, faster, and more personalised attacks. We caught up with Software@Scale’s CEO, Louis Droguett, who spoke to us about how to build resilient advice businesses in a digital world.

Software@Scale works with financial firms navigating this new reality - where AI is both a shield and a sword. With CPS 230 on the horizon and cybercrime growing in both frequency and sophistication, financial advisers and institutions must act decisively to protect clients, teams, and operations from the next generation of AI-driven threats.

The sword: AI-powered cyber threats on the rise

Over the next few years, we see the following AI-enabled threats as the most pressing in the financial advice and wealth sector:

Deepfake scams and synthetic identity fraud

AI-generated deepfake audio and video can convincingly mimic executives, colleagues or clients, enabling highly believable social engineering attacks. For example, an advice firm’s staff member could receive a call from a “client” (voice cloned via AI) asking for an urgent funds transfer. Without rigorous verification, the transfer goes through and the funds are lost. Synthetic identities, or AI-generated fake personas, are already being used to apply for loans, open fraudulent accounts, and bypass KYC controls.

Hyper-personalised phishing campaigns

Using AI tools like ChatGPT or LLM-based phishing generators, cyberattackers can now craft highly contextual, flawless phishing emails that are nearly indistinguishable from legitimate communications. For example, a fake investment opportunity could be sent to clients, written in an adviser’s tone of voice, referencing recent conversations, which is generated automatically using compromised email data.

Supercharging targeted entry-point attacks

AI can dramatically accelerate cyberattacks by automating the process of identifying and exploiting weak entry points across an organisation. Instead of targeting a single user, AI-powered tools can quickly scan public data, social media profiles, email formats, and communication patterns of everyone in a firm - from front desk staff to senior advisers. This allows attackers to map out a company’s structure and zero in on the most vulnerable individual. With that data, AI can craft convincing, personalised phishing emails or voice deepfakes tailored to each target. All it takes is tricking one person, and AI makes finding that person faster, easier, and far more precise than ever before.

Dark web-driven ransomware and data leaks

The dark web serves as a hub for ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) and data leak marketplaces, where cybercriminals plan and execute attacks against financial firms. Ransomware groups often advertise stolen client data, such as loan approvals or portfolio allocations, on dark web forums before demanding payment. In 2022, fintech giant Revolut suffered a breach impacting over 50,000 customers, with data later posted on a ransom group’s dark web leak site. AI enhances these attacks by automating data scraping and encryption processes, increasing their speed and scale. Financial firms face not only financial loss but also regulatory penalties and reputational damage from such leaks.

The shield: How AI can strengthen cyber defense

While these threats are real, AI is also redefining cybersecurity for the better. Financial firms can, and should, harness it to:

• Detect and respond faster: AI-driven systems can process huge volumes of data in real-time - flagging suspicious activity, triggering instant alerts, and locking down compromised systems. Think: an account accessed from two countries at once? Auto-freeze.
• Predict vulnerabilities before they’re exploited: Machine learning models can predict future attack vectors based on historical data, helping firms proactively patch weaknesses before attackers strike.
• Automate compliance and threat intelligence: AI can streamline regulatory reporting, assess control effectiveness, and track changes across infrastructure, helping firms stay compliant with CPS 230 and other evolving frameworks.

Five things advice firms should do now

AI-driven threats are making attacks faster, more convincing, and harder to detect, but staying secure doesn't mean reinventing the wheel. For most financial advice firms, it’s about doing the basics well and consistently. These five actions are simple, proven, and essential.

1. Train your people: Shift from awareness to behavioural readiness

As AI-powered cyber threats grow more sophisticated, firms must continue to learn beyond basic AI awareness and focus on developing real behavioural readiness across their teams. Education should not be treated as a once-a-year compliance exercise - it needs to be continuous, scenario-based, and aligned with the evolving threat landscape. Tools that simulate real-world attacks, such as AI-generated phishing emails and deepfake voice messages, are proving critical. These simulations can address up to 60% of the tactics used in actual cyberattacks, helping staff build muscle memory and improve decision-making under pressure.

Regular phishing drills, incident response exercises, and social engineering simulations tailored specifically to financial advice contexts, can empower staff to respond quickly and confidently to threats. This proactive approach ensures that teams are not simply relying on IT systems to catch attacks, but are actively contributing to a resilient, security-first culture.

To support this shift, firms should consider adopting frameworks like CPS 234 and recognised cybersecurity certifications. These frameworks help formalise core controls such as incident response planning, risk assessments, and third-party oversight, all of which are essential to earning trust in your cybersecurity maturity.

2. Invest in robust detection tools

Invest in sophisticated detection tools that go beyond traditional antivirus and spam filters. Modern cybersecurity platforms now use machine learning and behavioural analytics to identify subtle anomalies in user activity, detect AI-generated phishing attempts, and flag deepfake content in emails or voice communications. These tools can recognise patterns that indicate deception, such as unnatural language structure, time-of-day inconsistencies, or mismatched sender credentials - even when the message appears highly personalised. By deploying these intelligent, adaptive systems, advice firms can proactively detect and block threats before they reach clients or compromise sensitive data.

3. Enable multi-factor authentication everywhere

In an AI-driven threat landscape, the safest assumption is to trust nothing and verify everything - whether it’s a device, a login, or a request. Adopting a zero-trust approach means implementing robust controls like multi-factor authentication (MFA), privilege-based access management, and continuous identity verification. These measures don’t just protect internal systems - they signal to clients that cybersecurity is embedded into your firm’s culture, not just your tech stack. In fact, research shows that MFA alone can prevent nearly 90% of cyberattacks, making it a simple yet powerful step toward a more secure, client-trust-driven business.

4. Patch the gaps: Keep your system updated and maintain vendor oversight

As AI accelerates the speed and precision of cyberattacks, keeping systems up to date has never been more critical. Hackers can scan networks for unpatched vulnerabilities in seconds - turning outdated software into open doors. For advisers, this means routine patching and automatic updates should be non-negotiable across every device and platform.

Cyber risk doesn’t stop at your internal systems. Many advisers rely on a range of third-party platforms, from CRM tools to investment software, all of which store or transmit sensitive client data. It's essential to assess the cybersecurity posture of your providers, ensuring they too have strong patching protocols and risk controls in place. Maintaining your tech stack and monitoring your external partners is not just about operational hygiene - it’s about protecting client trust and safeguarding the integrity of your business in an AI-powered threat landscape.

5. Monitor the dark web for proactive threat intelligence

The dark web is a hidden marketplace for stolen data, AI-powered hacking tools, and ransomware-as-a-service, fueling many of the sophisticated attacks targeting financial firms. Proactively monitoring dark web forums, marketplaces, and Telegram channels can provide critical early warnings of threats, such as leaked client data, compromised employee credentials, or planned attacks against your firm. AI-driven dark web intelligence platforms use machine learning and natural language processing to scan these environments in real-time, identifying risks like stolen KYC documents or credit card records before they’re exploited. For example, in 2023, dark web monitoring helped a U.S. financial institution detect a brute force attack planned against its trading platform, enabling preemptive defenses.

By integrating dark web intelligence into your cybersecurity strategy, you can prioritise vulnerabilities, strengthen access controls, and prevent breaches like synthetic identity fraud or ransomware. This approach also supports CPS 230 compliance by demonstrating proactive risk management and third-party oversight, reinforcing client trust in your firm’s ability to safeguard their data in an AI-driven threat landscape.

Turning insight into action: Building cyber resilience now

AI is reshaping both the risks and the defences in cybersecurity. Staying protected starts with getting the basics right and doing them well, consistently. Financial advisers and institutions must understand AI’s dual role and take practical steps to adapt. Software@Scale helps financial services firms stay ahead of AI-driven threats by delivering scalable, strategy-led solutions that combine compliance, cybersecurity, and operational efficiency.

Software@Scale’s CEO, Louis Droguett, will be discussing why cybersecurity is paramount to client trust and engagement with a panel of industry leaders at Iress’ WealthTech Summit on August 6. Are you an Iress client or partner? Join us by reaching out to your relationship manager or the Iress support team today to secure your spot, or send us a message.

Finura Group is an independent Australian consultancy specialising in WealthTech strategy and execution for over 40 clients across Australia and the UK. Every year, Finura makes predictions for the financial services and WealthTech landscape, focusing on the intersection of technology trends, local tech players, and the evolving needs of financial advisers and licensees. Finura’s annual predictions are the most popular topic in their WealthTech Insider podcast, which discusses all things financial and wealth tech, plus industry news and trends.

What were Finura’s WealthTech predictions for 2025?

Finura forecast that in 2025, companies will fall into two categories: those undergoing mergers and acquisitions, and those preparing for them. The primary challenge won’t be technology itself, but rather cultural adoption and operational integration. As one CEO put it, “We don’t have a technology problem; we have a change management problem.” The future of WealthTech success hinges more on people and processes than on tools. Finura canvassed eight key themes for 2025:

1. Advice tech feels the squeeze and stays in neutral

With adviser numbers stabilising at 15,000, margin pressure is expected to intensify across the WealthTech sector. Providers reliant on adviser-based revenue models face three key challenges: zero system growth, rising compute costs (especially due to AI), and leaner new competitors. The traditional “Rule of 40” (Growth % + Margin % = 40%) becomes harder to meet, forcing companies to push for high margins and leaving little room for discounts or innovation. Mature software firms are likely to turn to acquisitions to reignite revenue growth.

Action for advisers: Build resilience into your tech strategy

Tech resilience is now a strategic priority. Advisers should shift from passive adoption to active management of their tech environment - controlling costs, safeguarding continuity, and staying agile in a slower-growth, higher-cost market.

2. Platform monogamy

The trend of advisers using multiple platforms is fading, driven by economic pressures, regulatory shifts (like Tranche II of DBFO), and the need for greater operational efficiency. In 2024, the number of firms preferring to use just one platform doubled to 12%, reflecting a growing demand for integrated advice ecosystems where data flows freely and tools come pre-integrated. Platforms offering end-to-end solutions covering advice delivery, practice management, and client engagement, are positioned to win big.

Action for advisers: Choose and commit to the right platform partner

Advisers should proactively align with a platform that offers long-term strategic fit, not just short-term functionality. The right choice can deliver operational leverage, compliance confidence, and improved client outcomes.

3. Industry superannuation forced to bring tech, advice and operations inhouse

Industry super funds are shifting from dabbling in tech to insourcing key services, driven by regulatory pressure for trustees to remain accountable for member outcomes. As funds face mounting demands to modernise tech infrastructure and member services (including advice), trustees must confront whether they’re equipped to invest in the tech their members and regulators expect. Digital advice innovation may need to be deprioritised so funds can focus on addressing more fundamental operational and technology issues.

Action for advisers: Position yourself as a specialist

Advisers should pivot away from dependence on industry super fund distribution or referral pathways and instead strengthen advice models that complement (rather than compete with) insourced fund strategies.

4. Private equity ownership reshapes advice tech

The wealth management private equity (PE) playbook is evolving from acquisition-focused growth to integration, corporatisation, and cost-control. With topline growth limited in professional services, PE firms are investing in scalable, efficient advice infrastructure and seeking proprietary capabilities through strategic tech partnerships. The tech companies that align with PE-backed advice groups will thrive, while others may be left competing for the long tail of the market.

Action for advisers: Align with scalable tech that supports growth

Advisers need to be strategic about the infrastructure they choose. The market is tilting toward integrated, enterprise-grade systems that support efficiency, compliance, and valuation uplift.

5. Gap widens for independent financial adviser (IFA) tech needs and services

The relationship between IFAs and their tech providers is at a breaking point, with only 23% of firms satisfied with their primary tech partner. Despite tech being ranked as the second-most critical business issue after talent, many firms remain stuck in outdated delivery models. As costs rise and innovation stagnates, the pressure may push advisers to seek new tech partners, potentially opening the door for platforms and managed account providers to disrupt the space.

Action for advisers: Take control of your tech future through strategic reviews

Advisers must continuously reevaluate existing tech partnerships and seek out next-gen providers that align with evolving needs around efficiency, client experience, and growth.

6. Business opportunity of the year - AI services

The biggest AI opportunity in 2025 lies not in creating new tools but in overcoming implementation and integration challenges. Finura estimates that an average advice practice currently spends $100K on software, but as firms grow and increasingly adopt a Service-as-Software model - where back-office outsourcing is delivered via software - they could be willing to invest $250K in AI services. Finura sees this shift as the prime growth area for its consulting division over the next five years.

Action for advisers: Invest in AI integration, not just AI tools

Advisers should treat AI as a strategic enabler, not just another software line item. Firms that strategically adopt AI to streamline operations, automate admin, and scale client engagement will unlock significant efficiency gains and margin improvement.

7. Marketing technology of the year - podcasts & YouTube

By 2025, podcasts and YouTube will become the leading channels for adviser marketing and client education. This success is driven by audience behavior, with Australians spending 22 hours per month on YouTube and over 40% listening to multiple podcasts weekly, including a 49% growth in listeners over 60. Advice firms aiming for strong digital growth will increasingly invest in content creation and lead management technologies.

Action for advisers: Build scalable content marketing with podcasts and YouTube

Podcasts and YouTube should be core components of advisers’ digital marketing strategy. The firms that win attention and trust will be those who educate consistently, connect authentically, and convert strategically through content.

8. Business technology of the year - agentic AI

The most transformative technology in 2025 will be AI agents acting as virtual team members. Companies like Salesforce are developing AI that handles routine tasks, with their "Agent Force 2.0" resolving 83% of customer queries without human help. The real breakthrough is in "augmented advice workflows," where AI works alongside human experts to continuously improve operations. Key AI use cases include commissions processing, platform transactions, cash and portfolio reconciliation, and SMSF administration.

Action for advisers: Integrate AI agents into back-office workflows

There is prudence in embracing AI agents as operational teammates. By using agentic AI to handle routine workflows, advice firms can dramatically increase back-office capacity, reduce errors, and improve responsiveness.

Finura Group’s Peter Worn (Managing Director) and Danni Le Grande (Head of IFA Consulting) will be discussing the 2025 predictions and whether they hold up at Iress’ WealthTech Summit on 6 August. Are you an Iress client or partner? Secure your spot at the event by registering here.

From trading desks to compliance engines, financial firms are awash in dashboards and analytics. Yet turning those insights into strategic action remains a challenge. It’s often said that most organisations are drowning in data but starving for clarity.

The issue isn't about having more data; it’s about making sure that firms have a clear problem to solve, they can identify the relevant data, use it, and learn from it in real time.

And the data evolution extends beyond just presenting compelling narratives and visualisations, the next step is moving towards initiating and managing a sequence of actions autonomously. The rise of agentic AI is making this much faster to implement. It’s early days yet, but agentic AI delivers a system able to make decisions, and achieve complex goals with limited human supervision. A Moody’s report says financial sector firms are beginning to use agentic AI to monitor markets and detect correlations in real time, rebalance portfolios, continuously assess credit risk and automate compliance workflows.

The most underestimated risk firms face is the opportunity cost of poor data management. While regulatory fines and operational hiccups grab headlines, the real loss is in the insights never uncovered, the strategies never tested, and the alpha never captured.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Missed revenue opportunities
  Firms sitting on vast datasets but lacking the tools or talent to analyse them are essentially leaving money on the table. Valuable patterns in client behaviour, market inefficiencies, or risk signals go unnoticed.
• Regulatory exposure
  Inadequate data governance increases the risk of compliance failures, leading not only to multimillion-dollar fines but also to reputational damage, license restrictions, and heightened scrutiny from regulators.
• Slower innovation
  Without clean, accessible data, it’s harder to experiment with new models, test hypotheses, or pivot strategies quickly. That agility is a competitive edge in fast-moving markets.
• Wasted resources
  A 2025 study[i] found that poor data quality costs large Australian firms an average of $493,000 per year in inefficiencies and missed opportunities. Globally, Gartner estimates the average cost of bad data at $12.9 million[ii] annually per organisation.
• Undervalued intellectual capital
  Data is a strategic asset, but only if it is used properly. When firms fail to harness it, they are not just wasting storage; they are underutilising the knowledge and creativity potential of their teams.

Four key barriers consistently prevent organisational progress

1. First, siloed systems fracture visibility. Firms might collect vast amounts of data, but fragmented platforms and inconsistent quality mean decision-makers rarely get the whole picture in real-time.
2. Second, there’s often a missing link between data teams and business leaders who sometimes fail to see each other’s perspectives.
3. Third, distinguishing between gaining data insights and applying them for strategic action is not always straightforward. Take, for example, Iress’s new Data Insights product. The Regulatory Reporting module enables firms to receive proactive alerts about suspicious activities, giving compliance officers clear guardrails while allowing them to make the final judgment. In this way, the insight itself is valuable, but the true impact comes from the subsequent action, where feedback from those decisions helps refine and improve the system’s automation over time.
4. And finally, firms often underestimate the cultural transformation required. Being data-informed isn’t just about tools; it is a mindset shift that demands buy-in, process change, and continuous iteration.

What success looks like

Successful organisations align four critical capabilities:

1. Building cross-functional teams: People with hybrid technical and business skills who can interpret data models in terms of business levers and risk strategies. Cross-functional teams can drive momentum, but where possible, firms benefit from hiring individuals who embody both technical and commercial fluency. These ‘bilinguals’ are the fast-track to clarity.
2. Driving business accuracy with reliable data platforms: Platform integrity that delivers clean, complete, and consistent data, which reflects the right customers, products, and timeframes.
3. Integrated workflows for smarter business decisions: Integrated workflows that embed insights where decisions are made - CRMs, OMS platforms, executive dashboards.
4. Embedding a data governance framework: Robust data governance ensures that insights are trustworthy, secure and responsibly managed. Firms that embed governance into platform design can mitigate risk, preserve decision integrity and scale automation more confidently.

And most important of all, good data platforms use a continuous feedback loop. Without structured evaluation, even good decisions become guesswork. But with it, data strategy is constantly refined.

Take the example of an Australian firm that was looking to improve customer retention. Instead of launching a broad data churn model, the team zeroed in on a single friction point in the customer journey. Working backwards, they identified the data they needed, embedded insight into the adviser workflow, and tested a new action path. It worked. Retention improved and the process was repeatable.

And crucially, it started small. Remember that strategic capability isn’t ‘launched’. It’s built, tested, and expanded.

Beginning (or accelerating) the journey

Few firms start from zero. But maturity varies. For those still in transition, remember to:

• Start with one real problem.
• Map the decision-makers involved.
• Define what success looks like.

Firms that get it right don’t just analyse data; they build entire ecosystems around it using quantitative modelling, machine learning and AI, backtesting and simulation, risk management models, and a host of other tools.

These strategies aren’t just about crunching numbers; they’re about building a dynamic, adaptive system that learns and evolves with the market.

Which leads to one final truth: turning data into impact is a transformation, not a project. It’s iterative. It’s cultural. And done well, it never stops.

ASX Service Release 15 (SR15) represents a significant milestone for the market, delivering a program of market structure upgrades designed to enhance the efficiency and resilience of the Australian market while aligning with international standards.

Why these changes matter

Today’s market environment demands speed, reliability, and the ability to adapt to changing regulations. Exchanges seeking to remain competitive need infrastructure that not only delivers low-latency and efficient trade execution but also stability and compliance under ever-evolving market pressures. SR15 responds to these requirements by enhancing the ASX’s trading systems through streamlining processes and strengthening the resilience of the Australian market.

Key updates introduced by SR15

A central element of SR15 is the shift to a unified Opening Single Price Auction (OSPA), replacing the staggered opening auction that divided securities into groups opening sequentially. The OSPA introduces a randomised 15-second window starting at 09:59:00, followed by a 30 to 60-second window for auction execution. This reduces fragmentation, enhances price discovery and aligns the ASX with major global exchanges like the NYSE, LSE and NASDAQ.

SR15 also introduces a new 10-minute post-close session that allows lit-order trading at the official closing price. This mirrors practices on other global exchanges and increases post-close liquidity, offering investors greater flexibility for end-of-day trading and rebalancing. Additionally, securities with late-breaking announcements can now participate in the closing auction, ensuring material information is reflected in the closing price and supporting fairer price formation.

Industry collaboration to ensure a smooth transition

An upgrade of this scale requires coordinated industry-wide readiness. Since the announcement of SR15 in 2024, Iress has worked closely with clients, brokers, custodians, and the broader industry to ensure all participants were prepared. This included detailed migration planning, rigorous testing and software updates to minimise disruption and maintain operational integrity.

On the first day of SR15’s operation, the ASX operated smoothly, demonstrating market confidence in the transition. Orders and trades processed via Iress maintained high-performance standards, ensuring operational workflows remained uninterrupted.

Looking ahead

SR15 positions the ASX to remain a modern, competitive, and investor-friendly exchange while supporting the evolving needs of the Australian financial market. For market participants, the upgrade offers an opportunity to review processes, reduce operational risk, and enhance their ability to engage confidently with the market.

At Iress, we are committed to supporting clients through these changes, ensuring systems and workflows are optimised for performance in the new environment. As global markets continue to evolve, staying prepared and connected will be key to unlocking opportunities and maintaining a competitive edge.

In today’s fast-moving mortgage market, innovation isn’t just a buzzword, it’s an opportunity. For mortgage brokers working in the New Build sector, it’s time to start seeing lender innovation not just as a product feature, but as a strategic tool for growth, visibility, and long-term client value.

Yes, your core focus is helping clients secure the best mortgage for their dream home. But the process doesn’t stop at rates and getting quick approvals. What if certain products, especially innovative ones, could generate more leads, support your developer relationships, and ultimately grow your business, even if customers don’t end up taking them?

We’ve seen lenders step up with offerings designed specifically for New Build buyers. Whether it’s extended offer periods, higher LTVs, or flexible income criteria, these products are aimed at solving real hurdles that stall deals and stifle demand. But too often innovative solutions are overlooked because brokers assume clients won’t opt for them or they won’t work. Here’s the thing; it doesn’t matter if every client says yes. What matters is using lender offerings to start more conversations

When you promote innovative products, especially those that are available on New Builds, you demonstrate that you’re ahead of the curve. That alone builds trust with potential buyers. It shows you’re proactive, connected and thinking beyond just the basic mortgage options. When customers are overwhelmed by the home buying process, a broker who brings new ideas to the table stands out.

Even better, these product features can be marketing gold for your developer partners. Imagine including no deposit or no repayments due for the first 3 months in marketing materials or discussing unique mortgage benefits during sales meetings and events. What about using some of your broad knowledge to stand out when prospecting new developers you want to work with? It’s a way to turn financial products into a sales advantage, and that’s the kind of collaboration developers need.

So, start thinking differently about lender innovation. Don’t treat new product features as just another line in the lender matrix. Treat them as a reason to send that email, post that video or reconnect with your developer contacts. Use them as a hook to drive enquiries and spark interest.

Change isn’t coming... it’s already here. The brokers who spot the angles others miss may just be the ones completing more applications.

Ready to dive deeper? Our BDM team is here to help you explore how lender innovation can support your clients and help you stand out in the New Build space, get in touch today - https://www.skipton-intermediaries.co.uk/help-and-support/contact-us?utm_source=iress&utm_medium=iress_blog&utm_campaign=newbuild_2025

From AI integration and enhanced data access to significant time savings, PlannerPal CEO Mark Whitcroft talks about the Iress and PlannerPal partnership that's revolutionising financial advice in the UK.

Q: Mark, congratulations on becoming the first official member of the new Iress Partnership. Why did PlannerPal make this move?

Mark: Thank you - we’re genuinely excited about what this enables, because it isn't just about integration; it’s about co-creating a smarter advice experience.

PlannerPal has always focused on saving advisers time, but this step takes us further: embedding AI deeply into the advice workflow. It’s about joining forces with Iress to align on the roadmap, user experience, and the data foundation that underpins great advice.

Q: What new capabilities does the partnership unlock?

Mark: With enhanced access to over 1,000 data fields across Xplan (10x more than most third-party tools can reach), we’re now able to drive comprehensive fact-finds, richer CRM automation, and instantly pre-filled reports, all powered by real-time data sync.

But this partnership is more than just deeper API access - it’s a truly joined-up approach between our teams. PlannerPal is working directly with Iress Product, Engineering, and Support teams to co-develop features, align on roadmap priorities, and deliver solutions to the problems advisers care about most.

That collaboration means faster feature delivery, tighter quality control, and a feedback loop driven by real user needs. We’re embedded in Iress user groups and advisory forums, so everything we build is guided by live adviser input - not assumptions.

Firms are telling us they’re saving 30–60 minutes per client by automating meeting notes, writing reports faster, and syncing updates directly to Xplan.

Mark Whitcroft - Founder & CEO PlannerPal

As a result, PlannerPal can now suggest CRM field updates, auto-save generated documents to the Xplan client file, and enrich reports and meeting notes using Xplan and other client data - all auditable, adviser-controlled, and fully compliant.

This isn’t AI bolted on - it’s embedded at the core of the adviser’s daily workflow.

Q: What’s been the feedback from firms using PlannerPal with Xplan so far?

Mark: The reaction has been incredibly positive. Firms are telling us they’re saving 30–60 minutes per client by automating meeting notes, writing reports faster, and syncing updates directly to Xplan their CRM. That’s not just saved time - it’s better compliance, higher data quality, and more consistent client service.

Q: What’s next for the Partnership?

Mark: We’re working closely with Iress Product and Engineering teams, and - importantly - with mutual clients to shape the roadmap together. This co-innovation model is what makes the Iress partnership different. We’re not just integrating tools; we’re building the future of advice, together.

Expect continued improvements to data quality dashboards, more AI-powered insights from adviser-client conversations, and deeper automation across the advice lifecycle.

Q: What would you say to firms considering trying PlannerPal?

Mark: Now’s the time. The free trial gives full access to our customisable meeting notes, report writer, and CRM updater. Setup takes under five minutes, and we support you every step of the way.

If you’re using Xplan, this isn’t just about AI productivity gains - it’s about aligning your data strategy and your AI strategy. If those aren’t working together, you’re just creating another disconnected data lake. With PlannerPal, every interaction makes your data better, your advice faster, and your client outcomes stronger.

Ready to try PlannerPal?

Visit plannerpal.co.uk/sign-up or speak to your Iress Account Manager.

It's one of the most important interactions between an adviser and a client, forming the foundation for almost every future conversation and decision. The overall ease (or complexity) of the fact find experience also creates a lasting impression, so it's crucial to get it right.

So, what if there was a better way to do fact-finding? Well, now there is...

Easy does it

We’ve reimagined the entire look and experience of the fact find. As well as a fresh, modern interface, the data capture process is now even more intuitive. For example, you can now reveal and collapse each section of the fact find and even edit table data inline. You’ll love the ease and simplicity.

Less is more

Get ready for a cleaner, leaner fact find. We’ve worked closely with users to identify the data that's essential to capture at the initial fact find stage. The result? A faster, more streamlined journey that captures the appropriate level of detail. Need to add extra information later? No problem. You can do that easily in the Key / Financial Details sections.

Done in one

The enhanced fact find experience is designed with you and your clients in mind. The updated experience is simple enough to use in front of your clients as you run through the fact find process together. No more jotting down notes to input later - get it done in one.

What's next?

These enhancements pave the way for some exciting AI developments ahead. Imagine being able to review a list of suggested changes to the fact find, based on an earlier client conversation. The decision on whether to update the data rests with you and your team, but AI does the heavy lifting. We're currently working on making this a reality.

Innovation drives progress, yet many capital markets firms find themselves stuck in old habits, hesitant to embrace new technology—even with the promise of greater efficiency, security, and resilience.

Why? It’s often a complex mix of cultural, technological, and operational concerns.

Yet, holding onto outdated practices is considered one of the most significant barriers to innovation, according to a report by Iress and Waters Technology, 5 Key Drivers Shaping the Future of Trading, based on insights from 38 global capital markets firms.

The overwhelming majority of firms surveyed believe a failure to implement the latest solutions inhibits progress.

The problem is that firms often find themselves caught between the need for innovation and the fear of disruption.

Trading firms thrive on stability with workflows built around familiar systems, processes, and software. So, even when outdated infrastructure slows them down, many still prefer to stick with the devil they know.

• “I don’t want to relearn everything” – Firms are comfortable with their current workflow. The idea of relearning processes, shortcuts, and navigation often feels like more trouble than it’s worth.
• “What if this upgrade causes problems?” – Previous system changes haven’t always gone smoothly. If an update has ever caused a major headache, scepticism is natural.
• “I know this old system has issues, but at least I can work around them” – With legacy systems, employees learn hacks and workarounds to make things function. A new system could break their workflow entirely.
• “Short-term efficiency matters more than long-term improvements” – Many firms focus on getting their job done today rather than thinking about long-term benefits of new solutions and upgrades.

While these fears are understandable, there’s a cost of standing still.

History is littered with examples of firms that failed to adapt and suffered the consequences. Industry giants like Kodak, Nokia, Sony, and Blackberry once dominated their markets but failed to anticipate and implement technological advancements.

In financial markets, firms that delay new solutions risk hindering growth by blunting competitiveness, threatening operational efficiency and introducing compliance risks.

Breaking the cycle

Change is inevitable, but for many trading firms, uncertainty holds them back. The fear of disruption, potential downtime, and unfamiliar workflows often outweigh the long-term benefits of modernisation. Yet, resisting change can be just as risky.

The solution? A smarter, more strategic approach to transition.

A gradual approach

Instead of overhauling entire systems overnight, firms can gradually integrate new technologies within familiar frameworks. This reduces the risk of operational disruptions while allowing employees to adjust at a manageable pace. For example, the rollout of the new Iress buy-side EMS (execution management system) leverages existing technology like the Iress Pro terminal while incorporating cloud-based enhancements. This allows firms to modernise and benefit from cloud-based enhancements that improve speed, security and resilience without disrupting current workflows.

Continuous testing and feedback

Another effective strategy is beta testing and continuous feedback loops. Smaller, more nimble firms often take advantage of beta versions of new platforms, providing valuable insights that shape product development. Larger institutions, while burdened with more complex and lumbering legacy systems, can adopt a similar mindset, introducing phased rollouts to allow teams to test updates before full-scale implementation.

A focus on flexibility

Cloud technology is also redefining flexibility, making upgrades more seamless. Traditional software installation often comes with logistical burdens – failed installers, compatibility issues and time-consuming patches. SaaS (software as a service) models eliminate these hurdles, offering instant updates, tighter security, and better resilience against market disruptions. The latest advancements from Iress, including self-healing applications, ensure that mission-critical systems remain available, reducing the risk of downtime.

One of the most potentially damaging threats of outdated infrastructure is the risk to valuable trading and customer data. Many firms spend more time reconciling fragmented datasets than analysing real-time insights. Our cloud-enabled data hubs solve this problem by ensuring seamless data-sharing across trading, risk, and compliance teams. By integrating systems, firms unlock real-time insights into liquidity, risk management, and smarter decision-making. Cloud platforms extract deeper value from data, consolidating fragmented datasets into a competitive advantage rather than a logistical headache.

The future of financial innovation

The markets are evolving at an unprecedented pace, becoming faster, more complex and more interconnected. Trends like the availability of trading 24 hours a day, the move to T+1 settlement and increasing regulatory scrutiny all demand greater responsiveness.

To remain competitive, firms must transition from rigid, monolithic systems to interoperable, cloud-native platforms that enable agility and innovation.

Future-proofing strategies include:

• Real-time data access – Providing firms with clean, structured data to optimise AI-driven decision-making.
• Open APIs & third-party integrations – using frameworks like FDC3 (Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium) for seamless system interoperability.
• Zero-install infrastructure – Reducing friction by eliminating traditional installation requirements and shifting to browser-based applications.
• Interoperable desktops - Connecting proprietary and third-party tools, allowing traders to build workflows around how they actually operate.

At its core, innovation is about adaptation. Firms that embrace change will find themselves positioned for success, while those that hesitate risk falling behind. The choice is clear: evolve, modernise, and innovate—or be left in the past.

The challenges for first-time buyers in getting onto the property ladder have been well documented with lack of supply, the cost-of-living crisis, high interest rates and difficulties in saving for ever-increasing deposits all playing their part. With the constant commentary in the media of these issues, you’d be forgiven as a first-time buyer if you believed that home ownership feels unattainable.

Unfortunately, a YouGov survey for the Building Societies Association carried out last year backs this up with an increase in the proportion of respondents that want to buy their own home but don’t think they will be able to – from 25% in March 2020 to 32% in March 2024.

With almost 1 in 3 potential borrowers believing that home ownership is out of reach, it’s vital that as an industry we understand whether this is perception or reality.

The Skipton Group Affordability Index

The second iteration of the Skipton Group Affordability Index has just been released and it reveals some stark findings for parts of the UK.

According to it’s data, nearly 90% of potential first-time buyers cannot afford to buy a typical first home in their local area based on their personal financial situation alone (i.e. without the ‘Bank of Family’).

It also found that nearly 40% of potential first-time buyers find are spending more than 45% of their household income on essential housing costs.

So what can be done?

For Skipton Group, our next job is to share these findings with government and policymakers – we are ready to inform and contribute to the wider conversation of the challenges being faced by the factors that are limiting access to the housing market for first-time buyers.

As lenders, it is vital that we continue to innovate - as a father who used Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor (Income Booster) to help his son, it is comforting to see more lenders provide this proposition. As the typical age for a first-time buyer has increased, I think it is safe to assume that the age of a supporting applicant has increased. Therefore, in my opinion more innovation and flexibility is needed in looking at mortgage terms in these scenarios for better affordability.

A buoyant FTB market is vital for all of us working the mortgage market and I am proud that Skipton Building Society was able to help over 20,000 people into their first homes last year. And I look forward this year to continue to work collaboratively with distributors and brokers in tackling the issues and overcoming the hurdles that first-time buyers face.

The latest United Nations World Happiness Report reveals that Finland is the happiest country in the world to live in. They have topped the list for the past eight years. What makes this country with long, cold dark winters such a blissful place to live? Aside from fantastic scenery, plenty of space and relative prosperity, much has been put down to their obsession with saunas. Almost 90% of Finns go at least once a week, meeting friends and family to enjoy this communal experience.

It is these important social connections which are believed to boost happiness in Finland. These visits create natural opportunities to talk, ask for advice, share concerns or just to have a good old moan. People feel part of something larger and know they have someone to turn to if they need help.

People need people. We are social beings. There is no substitute for getting together face to face. In our increasingly digital world, we are beginning to discover that online relationships cannot provide the same benefits as meeting people physically. People aged under 30, the digital generation, are over twice as likely to report feeling lonely often or always than those aged over 70^[1].

Loneliness is on the increase in the UK. The ONS figures show they are on the rise and have not decreased significantly since the pandemic lockdowns^[2]. Long-term sickness levels are also on the rise, with record numbers of people leaving the workforce because of it^[3]. Could the two issues be linked?

Research has long noted the link between social isolation and mental wellbeing. People who have strong social connections have a significant lower risk of depression than those that are lonely and isolated^[4].

A major cause of social isolation is illness or injuries. Being physically confined to the home through a physical or mental condition is a major barrier to keeping up vital relationships with friends and family. When people are ill, they often feel vulnerable and lose confidence, making them more likely to retreat from the world.

Illness can make people feel scared or uncomfortable. It can be difficult to know what to say and easy to convince ourselves that it’s better to stay away and leave someone to recuperate in peace. In a recent survey, we asked people who knew someone who was off work due to a long-term illness or injury what contact they had had with them recently. 31% said that they had had less contact. Men are more likely to have less contact than women, with 35% saying they had seen the person who is ill less. Those aged under 35 are the most likely to lose contact.

Illness strains social connections. It puts barriers up, preventing people from participating in their usual life, be that going to work, meeting friends, walking the dog or doing the school run. The longer you have not done these things, the harder it is to get back into them.

For those who have to rely on statutory sickness pay (SSP), which is only £109.40 a week, or are self-employed, and have no safety net at all, financial constraints can contribute to their isolation. Going out costs money; money that needs to be spent on the essentials like heating, food and accommodation.

Having the financial back-up that income protection provides, which can cover these essential costs, means there is more flexibility in the budget. It can provide the funds that allow someone to get out to meet people, attend support groups and therapy sessions that can help with their recovery. It can break the illness and social isolation cycle and enable that much needed connection to the outside world.

^{[1] Younger Brits report higher levels of loneliness | Campaign to End Loneliness}

^{[2] Community Life Survey 2023/24: Loneliness and support networks - GOV.UK}

^{[3] Sick people leaving workforce at record highs - BBC News}

^{[4] The Mental Health Effects of Social Isolation}

We’re proud to announce the launch of a strategic partnership with CyNam, the Cheltenham-based UK cyber technology and secure technology network.

The partnership brings together our expertise in financial services technology and cyber infrastructure with CyNam’s extensive network within the UK’s cyber ecosystem. We will work with CyNam on a range of initiatives, including:

• Knowledge sharing to tackle cybersecurity threats impacting financial services.
• Mentoring and talent development, with Iress supporting CyberFirst South West and contributing to mentoring programmes to nurture current and future cyber and tech professionals.
• Co-hosting industry events to drive discussions on cybersecurity and emerging technology trends and challenges.

Alistair Morgan, our UK CEO, and Ian McKenna, our global Chief Information Security Officer, were on hand to celebrate our partnership when it was formally announced last week at CyNam’s 10th anniversary celebrations in Cheltenham.

Alistair said: “Our UK headquarters in Cheltenham is home to our global cyber team, so we’re delighted to partner with CyNam to strengthen the link between financial services and cybersecurity and help to develop the next generation of cyber talent.”

Ian added: “The CyNam partnership is a key one for Iress. We are at the cutting-edge of cyber technology utilising artificial intelligence and industry-leading tools and processes, and we see this partnership as an opportunity to engage with the UK’s vibrant cyber ecosystem to help shape the future of secure financial technology.”

Hollie Wakefield, General Manager at CyNam, added: “This partnership with Iress aligns perfectly with our objective to connect our cybersecurity community with emerging technologies. By working together, we can foster a stronger relationship between fintech and cybersecurity while ensuring future tech talent is equipped with the skills needed to meet evolving industry demands.”

Plans are already under discussion for an Iress innovation event in May, and a combined presence at the renowned Cheltenham Science and Literature Festivals in June and October.

Read CyNam's announcement here.

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