Grant Thornton announces partnership with Pinsent Masons

Grant Thornton UK has announced a collaboration with multinational law firm, Pinsent Masons, to support firms with how they can share data “safely, efficiently and effectively” across financial services in a push to enable open finance.

The firm said that following the FCA’s 2019/2020 business plan, which introduced the concept of open finance building on open banking, there has been a “shift in demand” from the market and regulators to provide additional benefits to consumers through “greater choice and access” to products and services.

According to Grant Thornton, the focus of open finance is to improve the way consumers and SMEs manage their finances and to improve the way companies in the financial services interact with each other and with their customers.

The proposed open finance concept will affect mortgage providers, consumer credit firms, investment and pension funds, as well as general insurers and intermediaries.

Through this collaboration, the two firms will reportedly combine their range of data expertise, including advice on implementation and technology platforms, to support financial services organisations with data challenges.

This will reportedly include advice around data sharing and licensing, data ethics, data platforms, data analytics, artificial intelligence, creating data strategies and establishing fit for purpose data management.

The collaboration will initially focus on organisations across the financial services sector but there are plans to expand to other key sectors as it develops.

Leading the collaboration from Grant Thornton is Niresh Rajah, head of Data, RegTech and Digital Assurance Practice. Meanwhile, Andrew McMillan, head of technology and digital markets at Pinsent Masons, will lead the collaboration from the law firm.

McMillan said: “Across Pinsent Masons and Grant Thornton, we have complementary expertise spanning all areas of data advice, enabling organisations to unlock the value of the data they own. By working together, we will be able to provide clients with a holistic data service and we want to provide a key resource for tackling data challenges.”

Rajah added: “Together we will support financial services firms in navigating both the opportunities and risks posed by open finance. Our joint mission is to help our clients and the financial services ecosystem by providing expert advice on data sharing, data ethics and responding to data regulation in the most effective, efficient and secure manner.”