IT Support for Financial Services Firms: FCA, Security & Microsoft 365
What a UK financial services firm actually needs from an IT partner, counted rather than described: the Companies House register downloaded and analysed to show that 86.53% of the 64,708 operating UK financial services companies file as small companies and more than half the sector on paper is a holding shell, the FCA rulebook mapped obligation by obligation onto technology deliverables, PS26/2’s 24-hour incident clock and annual third party register explained before they bite in March 2027, the July 2026 Critical Third Party designations put in context, retention clocks from three years to seven set side by side, and Microsoft 365 priced at published UK list rates. Ends with a twelve-question provider test, a hundred-point scorecard and a 90-day plan.