Latest opinions that Ben O'Brien has shared on Finextra

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Ben O'Brien

Managing Director

Jaywing

Member since

11 Nov 2015

Location

London

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Ben's opinions

Federated learning in fraud detection: From proof of concept to practical adoption

At this year’s Credit Scoring and Credit Control Conference in Edinburgh, colleagues Ben Archer and Peter Szocs presented on a topic gaining significant attention: how federated learning can support banks in addressing fraud. Fraud has risen sharply in recent years, both in scale and sophistication. Cifas reported more than 217,000 cases to the Nat...

04 September 2025 /crime

Affordability at the centre: A new direction for loss forecasting

At this year’s Credit Scoring and Credit Control Conference in Edinburgh, Steve Finlay examined whether the industry’s reliance on economic response models (ERMs) remains the most effective way to forecast losses, and how affordability-focused methods could provide a stronger alternative. ERMs have long been the standard for linking macroeconomic ...

04 September 2025 /retail

PRA consultation signals a potential new route to IRB for mid-tier firms

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has opened consultation on measures that could reshape access to Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approaches for mid-tier lenders. Published on 31 July 2025, the discussion paper sets out options intended to lower long-standing barriers to accreditation, with responses invited until 31 October 2025. For many f...

22 August 2025 /regulation

What the latest Cifas Fraudscape update tells us

The latest Fraudscape 2025 six-month update from Cifas provides a detailed snapshot of how financial crime continues to shift in the UK. The latest figures show fraud remains a growing challenge, with over 217,000 cases recorded in the first half of the year – the highest number ever filed with the National Fraud Database and a 1% increase on the s...

18 August 2025 /crime

Supreme Court clarifies position on undisclosed commissions – but challenges remain

Last Friday brought a degree of relief for those in the Motor Finance sector, as the Supreme Court overturned much of the earlier Court of Appeal ruling on “hidden commissions.” While this decision brings some welcome clarity, it doesn’t represent an outright victory for lenders. Here, we look at what the latest judgment means for motor finance pr...

07 August 2025 /regulation

What the PRA’s Discussion Paper could mean for mid-tier IRB permissions

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has confirmed that it will publish a Discussion Paper (DP) this summer, aimed at improving access to Internal Ratings Based (IRB) model permissions for residential mortgages among mid-tier banks. The IRB approach, which allows firms to use their own credit risk models to determine capital requirements, rem...

31 July 2025 /regulation

DCA redress: What motor finance firms should be doing now

The trajectory of the Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCA) investigation is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. A Supreme Court judgment is expected on 1st August, and the FCA’s policy statement PS24/11 has already laid out a potential path towards industry-wide redress. At the same time, complaint volumes are rising, putting pressur...

29 July 2025 /regulation

Preparing for BNPL regulation: What firms need to do now

The arrival of formal regulation for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products is no longer a question of if, but when. With the Treasury’s May 2025 consultation response, the direction is this: by mid-2026, third-party BNPL lenders will fall within the scope of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This change brings with it a full set of regulatory re...

05 June 2025 /regulation

CP10/25: 9 areas firms must address to meet the PRA’s climate expectations

In our previous post on CP10/25, we examined how expectations around climate risk are becoming more specific and embedded. This follow-up focuses on the details, breaking down the proposals in the draft Supervisory Statement and what they mean for firms assessing their current position. Each area highlighted below reflects the level of depth and i...

22 May 2025 /regulation

CP10/25: How expectations on climate risk are developing

CP10/25 doesn’t introduce new climate risk rules — but it does raise the bar. The paper builds on existing guidance and reflects a clear push for firms to go beyond policy statements and start demonstrating how climate risk is integrated into real-world decision-making. The emphasis now is on depth. Firms are expected to show how climate factors a...

20 May 2025 /regulation