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HOW CITY FIRMS CAN SUCCESSFULLY ADOPT HYBRID WORKING

Source Finance Derivative

Robin Dey, Regional Principal for Client Relations

Hybrid working in practice has quickly become a mainstay topic of the conversations surrounding the future of work, especially as employers look to understand how their businesses will be impacted. Recently, accountancy firm EY announced plans for its 17,000 staff to move to a ‘hybrid working model’ that will give them the ability to work from home two days each week. Two of its big four rivals, PwC and KPMG, have also signalled their intentions to make similar switches to their traditional working patterns.

Unispace’s most recent Workplace Market study, which surveyed real estate decision makers from 150 companies with global office footprints, found more than half (52%) of those surveyed anticipate a “return to a new normal” by the end of Q3 2021. However, more than one third (35%) of respondents within the same sample feel that devising a strategy for the future workplace – which is likely to include some element of hybrid working – could be the most significant barrier to realising this flexible new reality. So, what could a hybrid working City look like?

The hybrid working challenge

It’s important to note that – even in the quieter summer months – the return to the office was well underway. In the week of the 16th of July (which marked ‘Freedom Day’ in the UK) workplaces in the City of London were the busiest they’ve been for 16 months after the government dropped coronavirus restrictions in England.  City-working attendance was around 50% of pre-pandemic levels according to data compiled by Google.

The City and Canary Wharf benefit from their clustered natures. Culturally and historically, financial institutions have built their businesses around the idea of working together in close proximity, sharing knowledge frequently and leveraging the power of the group. Investment banking is driven by ideas that spring from in-person brainstorming and collaboration; bringing people together. This powerhouse approach looks to deliver value via its model to both clients and employees.

Financial services firms focus on knowledge sharing – and that was traditionally seen to be done most effectively face-to-face. This is in contrast to many of the retail banks which have historically embraced remote and hybrid more enthusiastically. This is due to the rapid consumer-led digital shift over the past decade, and to support the retailer’s ability to draw top talent from the technology industry (an early-hybrid working adopter) to support their growth. Moves to introduce hybrid working across the City will seek to accommodate these engrained preferences in order to be effective.

Evolving to exceed colleagues’ expectations

survey from Accenture found that almost a quarter of the UK’s financial services workforce “would prefer to work entirely from home once a full return to office is possible” in a post-Covid world. In the same survey, 69% said they wanted to work two days or less in the office. However, the financial services industry is particularly client-led and many firms have publicly stated their focus on office-based working. While there will invariably be some activities which employees can access remotely, the overall mood music from the sector is one of an industry that is keen to put down a marker for its clients by going back to the office, expanding service lines, and returning to the pre-Covid buzz of collaboration in the workplace. That said, major banks and City institutions also want to remain competitive in terms of attracting and retaining the best talent. Companies need to balance their strategic imperative to reunite the workforce in physical environments with the employee-led demand for flexible ways of working.

Overcoming cultural and generational challenges

The approach to hybrid working differs across geographies. For example, in France and Italy, there’s a demand from some trade unions for financial sector employees to be given the opportunity to work from home at least two days a week as a minimum, which – if it came to pass – would require employers to adopt a hybrid working model. In the UK, by contrast, government guidance has placed the responsibility (and the choice of workplace strategy) firmly in the hands of private employers.

The talent war adds a layer of complexity to the hybrid working challenge for financial services firms. In a sector that some potential employees might perceive to be relatively homogenous, firms that elect to offer some degree of flexibility in working patterns and practices may well be seen as more attractive options for people looking to switch jobs. Indeed, while more senior members of the workforce may be comfortable working from home, the younger generation may not have the space to do so effectively. For younger investment bankers looking to build their networks and contacts, face-to-face interactions are going to be essential – that’s how the industry operates and it’s not really possible to develop the same consistent, and warm types of relationships remotely. As such, the workplace needs to be a space to collaborate, to meet and to grow, a space where culture is created and reinforced and where relationships can be forged and strengthened. So, what does the future hold and how can City firms develop a robust workplace strategy?

A ‘Propeller Framework’ for workplace evolution

The shift to hybrid working will change the rhythm of when employees choose to work from the office – which in turn makes City firms’ workplace strategies that much more important to get right. The office needs to evolve to meet the needs of your employees, assessing their personalities and activities and what is needed to accommodate their preferences. For financial institutions, everyday engagement across teams is vital, while client engagement is all about extracting information, discovering and meeting needs. That’s exactly what a ‘Propeller Framework’ can provide; the opportunity to understand how a company and its people truly want to engage with their workspace and what drives productivity, before implementing ways of maximising space and improving workplace efficiency.

Work is no longer simply a place. Businesses across the globe are looking for workplace solutions that improve employee retention, inspire collaboration and knowledge sharing, and normalise the true definition of flexible working. Focus less on the regimentation of individual desks and more on finding focus space with workplaces designed for collaboration, hospitality and socialising that have the flexibility to expand and contract in line with future needs. It’s not about utilising a one-size-fits-all approach but delivering an individually tailored environment.

Finding a balance between business productivity and meeting the needs of clients requires different perspectives. The old workplace model still has relevance but to move forward it’s important to consult with multiple stakeholders to understand the day-to-day needs of the firm and how a business could achieve its goals more effectively. Businesses may have been forced into change by the pandemic, or because of the cultural alignment driven by globalisation, but there’s now a real opportunity to explore how operating models and workspaces actually function – and the ways in which they can be refined to deliver better outcomes and productivity.

Building flexibility into design

Building flexibility into strategic planning and design will be critical to navigating a successful path towards a hybrid working model and to bring the workforce back into the office in a meaningful and safe way. Businesses may need to pivot quickly as space utilisation needs change. A Pilot scheme is a great option to test new strategies and models, repurposing spaces and collecting the activity data to confirm efficacy and inform future workspaces.

Change management will be vital to the success of any workplace programme. Key will be consistent communications, giving people confidence about expectations, working patterns, environments – whether that’s from a health and safety perspective or a needs and activity perspective – and tying in new technology to enhance employee experiences, and drive organisational culture.

While hybrid working can challenge how financial organisations have traditionally worked, it also presents an opportunity to evolve the workplace to better meet colleagues’ current and future needs. Businesses can balance these new needs and simultaneously create a centre of activity for collaboration, employee development, and client engagement, functioning alongside employees’ preferences for hybrid working rather than in opposition.

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Business

Innovation in banking must go hand in hand with security, and here’s why

Dean Clark, Group Chief Technology Officer for GFT

The banking sector is transforming more and more, with banks under pressure to meet customers’ evolving expectations. This means that even the most traditional institutions have to move away from legacy systems and adopt modern technologies such as cloud computing and AI. The aim of this shift is not just to keep pace with digital-native competitors, but also to improve operational efficiency and deliver better customer experiences.

However, innovation brings new challenges. Transitioning from centralised mainframes to cloud-based platforms is a complex process that can’t happen overnight. Amid this transformation, banks must ensure that security remains a top priority. Striking the right balance between modernisation and robust security is essential to building and maintaining consumer trust in the digital age.

Balancing agility with security

Multicloud is a key component of digital transformation strategies in the financial sector. Many banks are relying on hybrid multicloud to modernise and keep up with the evolving tech landscape. In the meantime, new digital banks are launching entirely on cloud-native platforms, which helps support agility and scalability from day one.

Cloud technologies offer many advantages, including improved performance, flexibility and faster innovation. However, despite these benefits, they do come with security challenges. Cloud infrastructure, often built and managed using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), can include some vulnerabilities and give an entry point into a bank’s system to malicious actors. As such, ensuring that IaC adheres to best practices is essential to avoid misconfigurations or exploitable vulnerabilities as early as possible.

The protection of consumer data must also be central to any digital transformation strategy. Security must be deeply embedded not only in backend infrastructure but also in the user-facing layers such as web portals and mobile applications. This is critical to maintain consumer trust and improve retention.

Why a unified security platform is essential

When undergoing digital transformation, financial institutions need a unified security solution to help streamline the security management process by having all the necessary tools in one place. In fact, a unified security solution is built on three interconnected pillars. First, security must be embedded directly into development pipelines. This integration helps identify and mitigate risks and misconfigurations early, before they can impact production. Second, through continuous monitoring and management of cloud assets, banks can gain more visibility and control over their security posture. Third, runtime protection safeguards cloud workloads, web applications and APIs through tools like cloud threat detection, host security, container security, serverless security, and web application & API protection. Together, these pillars help to establish a robust security framework. This way, digital banks can minimise risks, streamline operations and ensure compliance with regulatory demands.

The benefits of ‘zero trust’

Modern cloud-native banks rely on ‘zero trust’ security models more and more. ‘Zero trust’ refers to the principle according to which every request to access an organisation’s system should be carefully reviewed. This means that no user or system is trusted by default. They’re all subject to identification and authentication checks. This helps set clear boundaries between the applications the users are accessing and the resources available in the cloud. And even after access has been granted, all activity is monitored on an ongoing basis to identify potential malicious behaviour that could compromise digital banking systems. This continuous verification enhances visibility into potential threats and facilitates compliance with regulatory standards.

To further reinforce security, mutual transport layer security (TLS) can be implemented as a core design principle, enabling secure authentication with third-party entities over the internet. By adopting such measures, digital banks can build a resilient security foundation that safeguards against evolving threats whilst preserving customer trust and operational integrity.

The example of Salt Bank

Salt Bank is a next-generation digital bank launched in Romania. It serves as a good example of a financial institution that embedded security into its digital banking platform from the start. Salt Bank was built and launched in under 12 months, showcasing the power of an approach to innovation that heavily relies on security.

Salt Bank implemented a range of advanced security measures, including zero trust architecture, threat modelling, cloud security posture management, and automated security operations, guided by this security-by-design philosophy. These tools helped the bank implement a strong defence against cyber threats whilst still focusing on improving customer experience.

Central to Salt Bank’s strategy was Engine by Starling, a SaaS platform designed specifically for digital banking, paired with Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Cloud. Prisma Cloud played a key role in securing the bank’s cloud infrastructure, offering capabilities such as misconfiguration monitoring, risk detection, remediation and compliance management. Together, these technologies provide a unified and efficient approach to managing security in a complex cloud environment.

The future of modern banking is all about security

As digital transformation accelerates across the financial sector, companies must keep security at the top of their agenda. Whilst innovating is key to keeping up with evolving trends and changing customer expectations, it can’t be done without prioritising security. If security isn’t embedded in every layer of an organisation’s digital infrastructure, vulnerabilities may be introduced within the system and easily exploited by malicious actors. And once cyber attackers are in the system, everyone knows it can lead to chaos.

But security isn’t just for defensive purposes, it’s also a strategic advantage. In a climate of growing digital distrust, the most secure bank doesn’t just win compliance, it also wins customers. By choosing to turn advanced security into a visible product feature, not just an internal practice, banks can build marketable trust and differentiate from fintech challengers who may cut corners in pursuit of speed.

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Business

Why heat pumps are the future of heating and cooling

Drew Tozer

We live in a technologically advanced world with artificial intelligence, electric cars, and advancing space travel.

But our primary strategy for heating homes is still “burning stuff”.

We pump gas, propane, or oil into a traditional furnace and light the fuel on fire to keep houses warm. It’s an archaic solution—like sending a fax instead of an email.

Furnaces are popular because the majority of HVAC is replaced in emergency “no heat” situations. The default option becomes a like-for-like replacement (swapping an old furnace for a new furnace) because it’s quick and easy.

HVAC is a top 5 most expensive purchase that a homeowner will make in their lifetime, and we rush the decision by ignoring equipment until it breaks.

Choosing the right HVAC system is an opportunity to improve homes. HVAC is the biggest factor for indoor comfort and air quality, and the chance to pick the right system only comes around every 15 to 20 years.

Heat pumps operate like two-way air conditioners. In the winter, they take heat (energy) from the outside air and use it to heat homes.

So, what makes heat pumps the right decision?

Because electric products are just… better

Consumer experiences matter, and electric products create better experiences. The quality of electric appliances (like heat pumps, electric vehicles, induction cooking, and electric yard tools) surpassed gas alternatives in recent years.

For now, there continues to be a place for gas appliances in niche situations. But the overwhelming consensus is that electric products are better than gas products

A few examples:

  1. Oversized furnaces are the primary cause of comfort issues. Heat pumps are the direct solution—they can be properly sized to match the heating and cooling needs of a house, improving comfort and eliminating hot and cold rooms.
  2. EVs are more fun to drive, while being quicker, quieter, more convenient, and lower maintenance. The stress of “range anxiety” has largely disappeared with better infrastructure and battery performance.
  3. Electric yard tools are quieter, safer, and lower maintenance than gas tools.
  4. Gas stoves increase the risk of asthma in children. Induction is safer and healthier while offering similar control and faster boiling times.

The performance gap of electric over gas is growing. Every generation of electric products takes a leap forward while gas appliances stay largely the same.

Over the last decade, gas furnaces have increased from 90% to 97% efficiency. That’s the only change.

By comparison, cold climate heat pumps achieve efficiency ratings above 300% by moving heat instead of burning fuel to create heat. Heat pumps continue to improve, both in efficiency, reliability, and cold weather performance. They’re a proven success in cold climates like Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.

Heat pumps can also be sized to provide the right amount of heating and cooling at any given time, and the lack of combustion eliminates the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, gas leaks, and explosions.

A sustainable world is an electric world

The cost of ignoring climate change continues to grow.

There’s no way around it. Ignoring climate change won’t solve it.

The frequency and severity of wildfires in North America are a key example. Large parts of the US are becoming uninsurable as the damage risk becomes untenable for banks and insurance companies.

These aren’t political choices, it’s the free market working: climate change is bad for business.

When we choose to not take action, it increases pain and suffering without decreasing the economic burden. We’ll have to implement the same solutions, but we’ll have to pay more to rebuild and replace more infrastructure and homes along the way.

Delaying action is the more expensive choice.

Heat pumps are part of the solution because they create a path to sustainable heating. They can be powered by renewables, either on-site or within grids.

We have access to the cheapest source of electricity in human history: solar. We choose not to embrace and scale renewables for political reasons. It’s a people problem, not a technical one.

We’re fortunate that the sustainable option (heat pumps) is also the choice that improves the comfort, health, and safety of homes.

Energy (in)dependence matters

Heat pumps and renewables allow homeowners and countries to heat and power their homes with local energy. It makes homes and communities resilient against geopolitics and global energy costs.

A house can be entirely energy independent by combining a heat pump and electric appliances with rooftop solar and battery storage.

Conversely, you can’t extract and refine oil in your backyard. If you rely on combustion heating, then you’re dependent on the person or country that supplies your oil and gas. A situation that played out with Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.

In the tenuous landscape of global politics, energy dependence is a risk.

Heat pumps are the future of heating and cooling because they create a path to sustainable heating powered by renewables. They create comfortable, healthy, sustainable homes that benefit from energy independence and improve consumer experiences.

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Business

What can the West learn from the Arabian Gulf’s payments revolution?

Hassan Zebdeh, Financial Crime Advisor at Eastnets

A decade ago, paying for coffee at a small café in Riyadh meant fumbling with cash – or, at best, handing over a plastic card. Today, locals casually wave smartphones over terminals, instantly settling the bill, splitting it among friends, and even transferring money abroad before their drink cools.

This seemingly trivial scene illustrates a profound truth: while the West debates incremental upgrades to ageing payment systems, the Arabian Gulf has leapfrogged straight into the future. As of late 2024, Saudi Arabia achieved a remarkable 98% adoption rate for contactless payments in face-to-face transactions, a significant leap from just 4% in 2017.

Align financial transformation with a bold national vision

One milestone that exemplifies the Gulf’s approach is Saudi Arabia’s launch of its first Swift Service Bureau. While not the first SSB worldwide, its presence in the Kingdom underscores a broader theme: rather than rely on piecemeal upgrades to older infrastructure, Saudi Arabia chose a proven yet modern route, aligned to Vision 2030, to unify international payment standards, enhance security, and reduce operational overhead.

And it matters, because in a region heavily reliant on expatriate workers whose steady stream of remittances powers whole economies. The stakes for frictionless cross-border transactions are unusually high. Rather than tinkering around the edges of an ageing system, Saudi Arabia opted for a bold and coherent solution, deliberately aligning national pride and purpose with practical financial innovation. It’s a reminder that infrastructure, at its best, doesn’t merely enable transactions; it reshapes how people imagine the future.

Make regulation a launchpad, not a bottleneck

Regulation often carries the reputation of an overprotective parent – necessary, perhaps, but tiresome, cautious to a fault, and prone to slowing progress rather than enabling it. It’s the bureaucratic equivalent of wrapping every new idea in bubble wrap and paperwork. Yet Bahrain has managed something rare: flipping the narrative entirely. Instead of acting solely as gatekeepers, Bahraini regulators decided to become collaborators. Their fintech sandbox isn’t merely a regulatory innovation; it’s psychological brilliance, transforming a potentially adversarial relationship into a partnership

Within this curated environment, fintech firms have launched practical experiments with striking results. Take Tarabut Gateway, which pioneered open banking APIs, reshaping how banks and customers interact. Rain, a cryptocurrency exchange, tested compliance frameworks safely, quickly becoming one of the Gulf’s trusted crypto players. Elsewhere, startups trialled AI-driven identity verification and seamless cross-border payments, all under the watchful yet adaptive guidance of Bahraini regulators. Successes were rapidly scaled; failures offered immediate lessons, free from damaging legal fallout. Bahrain proves regulation, thoughtfully applied, can genuinely empower innovation rather than restrict it.

Prioritise cross-border interoperability and unified standards

Cross-border payments have long been a maddening puzzle – expensive, sluggish, and unpredictably complicated. Most Western banks seem resigned to this reality, treating the spaghetti-like mess of correspondent banking relationships as a necessary evil. Yet Gulf states looked at this same complexity and saw not just inconvenience, but opportunity. Instead of battling against the tide, they cleverly redirected it, embracing standards like ISO 20022, which neatly streamline data exchange and slash friction from global transactions.

Examples abound: Saudi Arabia’s adoption of ISO 20022 through its Swift Service Bureau will notably accelerated cross-border transactions and improve transparency. The UAE and Saudi Arabia also jointly piloted Project Aber, a digital currency initiative that significantly reduced settlement times for interbank payments. Similarly, Bahrain’s collaboration with fintechs has simplified previously burdensome remittance processes, reducing both cost and complexity.

Target digital ecosystems for financial inclusion

One of the most intriguing elements of the Gulf’s payments transformation is the speed and enthusiasm with which consumers embraced new technologies. In Bahrain, mobile wallet payments surged by 196% in 2021, contributing to a nearly 50% year-over-year increase in digital payment volumes. Similarly, Saudi Arabia experienced a near tripling of mobile payment volumes in the same year, with mobile transactions accounting for 35% of all payments. 

The West, by contrast, still struggles with financial inclusion. In the U.S., millions remain unbanked or underbanked, held back by distrust, geographic isolation, and high fees. Digital solutions exist, but widespread adoption has lagged, partly because major institutions view inclusion as a long-term aspiration rather than an immediate priority. The Gulf shows that when digital tools are made integral to daily life, rather than optional extras, the barriers to financial inclusion quickly dissolve.

The road ahead

As the Gulf region continues to refine its payment systems experimenting with digital currencies, advanced data protection laws, and AI-driven compliance the ripple effects will be felt far beyond the GCC. Western players can treat these developments as an external threat or as a chance to rejuvenate their own approaches.

Ultimately, if you want a glimpse of where financial services may be headed towards integrated platforms, real-time international transactions, and widespread digital inclusion – the Gulf experience is a prime example of what’s possible. The question is whether other markets will step up, follow suit, and even surpass these achievements. With global financial landscapes evolving at record speed, hesitation carries its own risks. The Arabian Gulf has shown that bold bets can pay off; perhaps that’s the most enduring lesson for the West.

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