Topic hub
Organisational Blind Spots and Assumption Risk
The assumptions a leadership team relied on when a strategy was approved rarely get revisited once execution begins. As stakeholder positions, market conditions and operational reality shift, internal confidence can keep rising even as the evidence supporting it weakens.
Polar Insight's view
Polar Insight helps leadership teams identify where internal assumptions have stopped being tested, so blind spots surface as a decision point rather than an operational, regulatory or reputational failure.
Featured insights
Two special administrations in 48 hours: client-asset risk returns to the boardroom
Jarvis Investment Management and ePayments Systems entered special administration within 24 hours of each other, exposing wealth managers and e-money firms to fresh client-asset scrutiny. For senior leaders, the episode reframes safeguarding, outsourced custody and FSCS perimeter questions as live board issues, not operational housekeeping.
Motor finance redress heads to tribunal: lenders told to plan for a world without the scheme
The Upper Tribunal will hear legal challenges to the FCA's motor finance compensation scheme between 16 and 26 February 2027, with judgment expected months later. The FCA is telling lenders to prepare financially and operationally for the possibility that the scheme, or parts of it, could be quashed.
Abacus bankruptcy: the FCA's insolvency playbook for small broker failure
The FCA has secured a bankruptcy order in Scotland against Arthur Temlett, trading as Abacus Insurance Consultants, following concerns he sold policies without remitting premiums. The case shows how the regulator is using personal insolvency, not just enforcement, to close out small-firm failures, with implications for professional indemnity underwriters, insurers relying on broker distribution, and boards overseeing appointed representative networks.
The MPC in listening mode: markets now price rate rises, not cuts
Minutes from the Bank of England's Market Participants Group show senior investors and MPC members converging on the view that Bank Rate may need to rise. For finance leaders who spent 2026 planning around gradual easing, the repricing forces a rethink of funding, hedging and capital assumptions.
Debt advice under scrutiny: the FCA moves against fee-driven referral models
The FCA has issued a consumer warning on debt advice red flags, restricted Curtis Faraday from taking new customers, and banned a senior manager at Beauforce Corporation for lack of honesty and integrity. For leaders in consumer finance, lead generation, and IVA-adjacent businesses, the regulator is signalling that steering practices and referral economics are now enforcement territory.
Bailey's held rates: the tightening no one legislated for
The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% in September while the Fed and ECB moved, and the Governor argued that unexpected inaction has itself tightened UK monetary conditions. For financial services leaders, the message is that policy divergence and Gulf-driven energy risk are now the operative variables in balance sheet, pricing and hedging decisions.
Relevant guides
How to Challenge Groupthink in a Leadership Team: A Working Guide
This guide explains how senior leaders can surface and challenge groupthink inside an executive team without destabilising it. After reading, you will know how to spot the warning signs, structure dissent into your decision process, and build the habits that keep a leadership team honest.
Running Stakeholder Intelligence Across a PE Portfolio: A Working Guide
This guide explains how private equity firms can build a repeatable stakeholder intelligence function across portfolio companies, covering customers, employees, regulators and partners. After reading, you will know how to design, sequence and act on portfolio-wide intelligence that supports value creation and protects downside.
How to Manage Stakeholder Risk in an Acquisition: A Working Guide
A practical guide to identifying, sequencing and managing stakeholder risk through the lifecycle of an acquisition. After reading, you will know which stakeholders can derail the deal, when to engage each one, and how to spot the warning signs that value is leaking before close or during integration.
Stakeholder Intelligence Before a Board Decision: A Working Guide
This guide explains how to gather and present stakeholder intelligence in the window before a board decision, so directors can test the proposal against the views of the people who will shape its outcome. After reading, you will know what to collect, who to speak to, how to sequence the work, and how to present findings in a way that strengthens the board's judgement rather than crowding it.
How to Test Strategic Assumptions Before Committing: A Practical Guide
A working guide for senior leaders in financial services on how to surface, prioritise and stress-test the assumptions underpinning a strategic decision before capital or reputation is committed. After reading, you will know which assumptions deserve scrutiny, how to test them credibly, and when the evidence is strong enough to proceed.
Reading Customer Sentiment After an Acquisition: A Field Guide
This guide sets out how to assess customer sentiment in the months following an acquisition, using structured interviews, behavioural signals, and segmentation. After reading, you will know what to measure, who to talk to, and how to turn findings into decisions the integration team can act on.