InMarketing Today

Euroclear UK & International will stay open until 11pm and reopen at 2am from the end of November, Global Custodian reported yesterday. The longer hours give firms more time to input and match trades, and help those in Asia-Pacific and other distant time zones. Charlie Pugh, who leads its preparations for T+1, the move to settling trades one business day after the trade, said there is "no point in waiting" for the October 2027 switch, which the European Union and Switzerland also make.

Most deadline communications threaten. This one invites: a market infrastructure, speaking plainly through its business lead, offering a safe place to practise and a year to get comfortable. Firms that accept will have something worth telling clients long before the switch: a rehearsal that went well, with the problems found and fixed. That record is the reassurance clients will want when the deadline arrives.

Run your own trades through the new hours in November, while the current two-day cycle leaves room for mistakes, and keep a log of what breaks. Share what you learn with clients as you go, in plain terms. Name one person to speak for your readiness.

Hyperlayer, a London fintech founded in 2023 by former Morgan Stanley executives, has raised £19.5m at a £195m valuation, Finextra reported yesterday. Existing investor Flintlock Capital led the Series A2 round, joined by Mouro Capital and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, taking total funding to nearly £50m. Its product layer sits above a bank's existing technology so new products can launch without disturbing the core. Chief executive Rob Rooney says it has gone from a standing start to mandates with global Tier 1 banks in three years.

The pitch leads with what does not change. For a regulated buyer, resilience and compliance are the things a project must not disturb, so a proposition that starts there is easier to take to a risk committee than one that starts with novelty. The funding round adds a second proof point: the existing lead investor chose to back it again.

If you sell to banks, open with what the buyer keeps, such as core systems, controls and audit trail, before what they gain. Give your internal sponsor a one-page version to forward to risk and compliance. Name your investors and clients wherever you may, because in this market who backs you is evidence.

The Financial Conduct Authority will soon publish fresh guidance on simplified advice and targeted support, Money Marketing reports today. Sarah Pritchard, its deputy chief executive, told the Investment Association's annual dinner yesterday that more than a dozen firms are authorised to deliver targeted support six months after the regime launched, and that early data suggest consumers who receive it invest up to 53% more than those who do not. The rules will come with case studies developed with the Financial Ombudsman Service, and she said the sector is "just past peak rule making".

When rule writing slows, the competitive question shifts from what is allowed to who explains it best. Simplified advice is a service clients must grasp in a sentence: what they get, what they do not, and what it costs. The 53% figure will be tempting to quote, but it is early data, it says "up to", and it comes from the regulator rather than from your own clients.

Decide whether you will offer targeted support, and write the two-sentence client explanation before you build the service. If you are already authorised, collect your own outcomes with client consent and publish them with the caveats printed. Read the Financial Ombudsman Service case studies when they appear, as a guide to how your client wording will be judged.