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
Stakeholder Mapping Before Capital Commitment: What Good Looks Like
A practical guide to mapping the stakeholders who will shape, support, or block a capital commitment before the money moves. Readers will finish knowing how to structure the exercise, who to include, and how to translate findings into a defensible investment decision.
Mapping the Stakeholders Behind a Regulatory Approval Decision
A practical guide for senior leaders on how to identify, assess and sequence engagement with the people and institutions whose views shape a regulatory approval outcome. After reading, you will be able to build a defensible stakeholder map that strengthens the quality of your submission and your engagement around it.
Why Enterprise Buyers Choose Inertia Over Switching Providers
A practical guide to understanding why enterprise buyers in regulated sectors so often default to the status quo even when they are unhappy with their current provider. After reading, you will be able to diagnose where inertia is blocking your deals and intervene before 'do nothing' becomes the default outcome.
Finding the Real Buying Triggers Behind Regulated Purchases
A practical guide for senior leaders selling into banks, insurers, and asset managers on how to identify what actually moves a regulated buyer from interest to signature. After reading, you will know how to separate stated reasons from real triggers, and where to look for the events that unlock budget.
Finding the Hidden Veto Players in Enterprise Deals
A practical guide to surfacing the stakeholders who can quietly kill an enterprise purchase before it reaches signature. Readers will finish with a method for mapping veto power, testing it in live deals, and sequencing engagement to reduce late-stage collapse.
How to Run Win-Loss Analysis When CRM Reasons Can't Be Trusted
A practical guide for commercial and strategy leaders in financial services on running win-loss analysis when CRM close reasons are incomplete, biased, or wrong. Covers how to rebuild a reliable evidence base, what to interview for, and how to turn findings into decisions the executive committee will act on.