Lanmark provides managed IT support to financial services firms across London, including wealth managers, independent financial advisers, brokerages, asset managers, and corporate finance teams. Our service combines reliable day-to-day support, 24/7 cyber threat monitoring through our Managed Detection and Response service, FCA-aware operating practices, and predictable per-user pricing. As holders of the Microsoft Support Service Designation, an accreditation held by only a handful of Microsoft partners worldwide, we bring an independently verified standard of technical and security expertise to every client we work with.
For finance directors who do not have a dedicated IT team, the proposition is straightforward. Lanmark looks after the technology so that the firm can focus on its clients, its regulators, and its commercial growth.
Why financial services firms need specialist IT support
The IT requirements of an FCA-regulated firm are not the same as those of a generic office environment, and the differences matter.
The first is what is at stake. Financial services firms hold client money, manage assets on behalf of clients, and process highly sensitive personal and financial information. The consequences of a breach extend beyond operational disruption to regulatory scrutiny under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), reputational damage in a referral-led business, and client losses that are harder to recover than the underlying technical fault.
The second is the systems landscape. Most modern firms run on Microsoft 365 for email, collaboration, and document storage, with bolt-on platforms for portfolio management, CRM, trading, custody, KYC and AML, and reporting. These platforms need to talk to each other, comply with data residency and access requirements, and remain available when markets are moving. Generic IT support that treats every business the same struggles with this complexity.
The third is the threat profile. Finance firms are among the most targeted by cyber attackers. The combination of valuable data, time-pressured staff, and frequent payment instructions makes the sector a priority for phishing, business email compromise, and ransomware. Specialist IT support assumes this risk from day one.
Cyber security for financial services, and what good looks like
The threats facing finance firms are well documented. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) publishes regular guidance for the financial services sector, and the patterns are consistent. Phishing emails impersonating colleagues or counterparties trick staff into authorising transfers or releasing credentials. Business email compromise (BEC) campaigns hijack legitimate email threads to redirect payments. Ransomware encrypts files and operational systems, then demands payment to release them. Supplier-chain attacks target the firm through a trusted third party, often an outsourced service or software provider.
Antivirus software and a basic firewall are no longer enough. Modern attacks use stolen credentials, legitimate administrative tools, and slow-burn techniques that conventional security products do not flag. By the time a familiar alert fires, the attacker has often already achieved their objective.
Lanmark’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service provides 24/7 monitoring of the firm’s environment by a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC). Analysts watch for the patterns of behaviour that indicate an attack in progress, escalate immediately, and contain the threat before it becomes an incident. This is the level of protection previously reserved for large banks and insurers. Lanmark delivers it at SMB-accessible pricing because operational resilience is no longer optional for a small finance firm. It is the baseline that clients, regulators, and insurers increasingly expect.
For wider context on Lanmark’s approach, see our cyber security services page.
FCA expectations and operational resilience, and how IT supports compliance
The FCA’s operational resilience policy statement (PS21/3) sets out clear expectations on regulated firms to identify important business services, set impact tolerances, and ensure those services continue during and after disruption. The Senior Managers regime makes accountability personal. While Lanmark does not provide regulatory advice, we work alongside the firm’s compliance function to provide the IT controls and processes that sit underneath these obligations.
In practice this means access management that ensures only authorised individuals can reach client data, change control over critical systems, audit logging that captures who did what and when, backup and recovery that meets the firm’s defined recovery objectives, incident response plans that have been tested rather than written, and vendor risk management for the third parties the firm depends on.
An annual IT and security review is a straightforward way to demonstrate good IT housekeeping to auditors, professional indemnity insurers, and supplier due diligence questionnaires. Lanmark provides this as part of the managed service.
Microsoft 365 and the cloud for financial services
Most modern financial services firms run on Microsoft 365. As a Microsoft Direct Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), Lanmark supplies M365 licences at discounted rates and manages the full lifecycle of the firm’s Microsoft environment. The Microsoft Support Service Designation, an accreditation held by only a handful of Microsoft partners worldwide, gives our clients confidence that the team supporting their environment has been independently assessed by Microsoft against a high technical and service bar.
The licensing piece is often where firms find unexpected value. Many are over-licensed in areas they do not use and under-licensed in features that would deliver genuine productivity or security gains. Conditional access policies, phishing-resistant authentication, data loss prevention rules, and information protection labels are commonly available within existing M365 plans but rarely fully deployed. Our free Microsoft 365 licence review identifies where the firm is paying too much, where it is missing protection it has already paid for, and where a small change of plan will deliver a meaningful improvement.
For Azure-hosted line-of-business systems, market data feeds, and portfolio platforms, Lanmark applies the same operating discipline. See our Microsoft cloud page for the wider context.
Per-user pricing, predictable IT costs as the firm grows
Financial services firms grow through hire, lateral team moves, acquisitions, and new fund or product launches. Headcount changes regularly. Per-device or per-incident IT support pricing creates friction at every change, and produces invoices that nobody can easily forecast.
Lanmark’s per-user pricing model removes this friction. Every member of staff is covered across all their devices for a single monthly user fee. When the firm grows, the cost scales proportionately. When it contracts, so does the bill. There are no call-out charges, no per-incident fees, and no surprise invoices at the end of a difficult month. Finance directors find this commercially predictable, and operations directors find it administratively simpler than the alternatives.
Why Lanmark, and the credentials that matter to FDs and COOs
We hold the Microsoft Support Service Designation, awarded to only a handful of Microsoft partners worldwide. We are a Microsoft Direct Cloud Solution Provider, with a direct relationship to Microsoft rather than via a distributor. We deliver 24/7 MDR and SOC services, built to enterprise standards and priced for SMBs. Our support team is UK-based and reachable. Our offices are in Holborn and Dartford, with most of our clients in central London. Our pricing is per user, and our model is unlimited support, so the commercial relationship is straightforward.
What we are not is a regulatory adviser. We work alongside the firm’s compliance function rather than replacing it.
Frequently asked questions
Do you support FCA-regulated firms in London?
Yes. Lanmark supports a range of FCA-regulated financial services firms across London, including wealth managers, IFAs, brokerages, and corporate finance teams. We provide the IT controls and operational practices that sit underneath the firm’s regulatory obligations, working alongside the firm’s compliance function. Lanmark does not provide regulatory advice.
How do you handle client and market-sensitive data?
Lanmark engineers operate under written confidentiality and data processing terms in line with UK GDPR requirements. Access to client systems is logged and auditable. Where client requirements demand it, we will work to specific data residency, encryption, and access control standards agreed at onboarding.
Can you support our trading, portfolio management, or CRM systems?
Lanmark works with a broad range of financial services software, both cloud-hosted and on-premise. Specific platform compatibility is assessed during the discovery phase of onboarding. Common environments include Microsoft 365, Azure-hosted line-of-business systems, and CRM and portfolio platforms used in wealth management and corporate finance.
What happens if we are hit by a phishing attack or business email compromise?
Lanmark’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service runs 24/7 and is designed to detect and contain threats before they become incidents. Where an incident does occur, our security operations centre (SOC) team responds immediately, working with the firm to contain the threat, preserve evidence, and restore normal operation. See our Managed Detection and Response page for the full explanation.
How quickly can you take over from our current IT provider?
Onboarding follows a structured discovery, documentation, and cutover process. Most transitions complete within four to eight weeks depending on firm size and existing infrastructure complexity. Lanmark manages the handover to minimise disruption, including out-of-hours cutover where appropriate.
Do you offer a free Microsoft 365 licence review?
Yes. Lanmark provides a free Microsoft 365 licence review as a no-commitment way to assess whether the firm is correctly licensed and whether savings are available. The review typically takes one or two short sessions and produces a written summary of findings.
Speak to Lanmark
If you are a finance director, COO, or practice manager at a London financial services firm and the points above resonate, we would welcome a short conversation. The free Microsoft 365 licence review is a useful first step, with no commitment to switch provider. Contact us to arrange a call at a time that suits you.