Banking & Capital Markets
A bank's board pack, its regulatory returns and its management accounts often take the same balances from different extracts, and reconciling them can take the first week of every month. We work on the data, reporting and process technology underneath: where each figure comes from, how it is reconciled and who changed what. THEFOCUS is not authorised by the FCA or the PRA and does not provide regulated financial or investment advice, audit, actuarial or legal services.
Discuss this with usMarket context
In 2022 the UK financial system had assets of around £28 trillion, of which £13.6 trillion, around half, was held by banks.
Source: House of Commons Library, Financial services in the UK (18 August 2026)
In the final quarter of 2025 there were 1.09 million jobs in the UK financial and insurance services sector, 3% of all jobs.
Source: House of Commons Library, Financial services in the UK (18 August 2026)
The PRA's Basel 3.1 policy, rules and reporting requirements take effect on Friday 1 January 2027.
Source: Bank of England, PS1/26 Implementation of Basel 3.1: Final rules (January 2026)
Business challenges
01
One balance, three versions
Finance, risk and treasury each extract balances from the core banking system on their own timetable and apply their own adjustments. The board pack, the regulatory return and the management accounts then show different figures for the same portfolio, and analysts spend days explaining the gaps.
02
Rule changes without data lineage
When a rule change alters how exposures are classified or reported, someone has to trace each reported line back to source fields. Where that lineage lives in spreadsheets and in one person's memory, every change starts as a manual investigation.
03
Spreadsheets inside critical processes
Provisioning, fee calculations and reconciliations often run in workbooks and macros owned by one analyst, with no version control and no record of who changed a formula or when.
04
Customer outcomes assembled by hand
Complaints, arrears, onboarding and product data sit in separate systems. A firm that has to show outcomes by product and customer group rebuilds the evidence for every review instead of reading it from a maintained dataset.
Where the opportunity sits
One reconciled layer for management information
A governed data layer that takes balances from source once, applies documented adjustments and feeds the board pack, management accounts and MI dashboards gives every report the same starting figure and a visible list of adjustments.
Lineage recorded as pipelines are built
Documenting field-level lineage while data pipelines are built means the next rule change starts from a map of which source fields feed which reported lines, rather than from a search.
Spreadsheet processes moved into controlled tools
Rebuilding high-risk workbooks as version-controlled code or workflow steps, with tests and an approval step, gives the second line of defence a process it can review and the business one that does not depend on a single person.
How we approach it
We start with an inventory of the reports the business depends on: board and committee packs, management accounts, MI dashboards and the operational reports behind them. For each one we trace the figures back to the source systems and record every manual step and adjustment on the way. Access is read-only until the findings are agreed. The output is a prioritised list of data, reporting and automation work, which we then build with the firm's own engineering, finance and risk teams. Regulatory interpretation, capital and liquidity methodology and the sign-off of any return stay with the firm, its senior managers and its regulated advisers. THEFOCUS is not authorised by the FCA or the PRA and does not provide regulated financial or investment advice, audit, actuarial or legal services.
How our experience is evidenced
No anonymised engagement in banking or capital markets is published. This page describes our approach and capabilities in management information, data, reporting and process technology. THEFOCUS is not FCA-authorised and does not provide regulated financial or investment advice, audit, actuarial or legal services.
Questions executives ask
Is THEFOCUS authorised by the FCA or the PRA?
No. THEFOCUS LTD is not authorised by the FCA or the PRA and does not carry out regulated activities. We do not provide financial or investment advice, audit, actuarial or legal services. Our work covers management information, data, reporting, process technology and operational change.
Can you prepare our regulatory returns?
We can build and document the data pipelines, reconciliations and controls that feed a return, and trace each reported line to its source. Interpretation of the rules, the calculation methodology and the sign-off stay with your finance, risk and compliance teams and their advisers.
Do you advise on trading, lending or investment decisions?
No. We do not recommend trades, investments, credit decisions or products. In banks and capital markets firms we work on operational reporting, reconciliations, data quality and the automation of manual finance and operations steps.
Have you worked with banks before?
We have not published an anonymised engagement in banking or capital markets. A proposal would set out the approach, the specialists assembled for the work and which parts of it would be new to us.
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