Alternative finance lender Oakam is trying to help the unbanked November 30, 2018 Payday loan companies get a bad rap. And it’s easy to see why, considering the predatory businesses practices and extortionate interest rates charged by lenders like Wonga, which collapsed into administration this year. High-interest, short-term loans were back in the news this week, with the announcement that the fintech startup Monzo is considering offering such [...]
Tesco and Volkswagen team up to install electric car charging points at 600 supermarkets November 30, 2018 Tesco and Volkswagen are planning to install free electric car charging ports at 600 stores, the companies announced today. Over the next three years Britain’s largest supermarket will roll out more than 2,400 electric vehicle charging points at Tesco Extra and Superstore car parks, representing a 14 per cent increase in public charge bays across the [...]
‘A kick in the teeth for commuters’: The industry reacts to the rail fares hike November 30, 2018 Rail fares are set to increase by an average of 3.1 per cent in the new year, affecting millions of people and increasing many passengers' season tickets by around £100. The rise in the cost of travelling by train comes despite calls for a price freeze following a year of disruption that saw Network Rail fined [...]
Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn to be held an extra 10 days in Tokyo November 30, 2018 Ousted Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has had his Tokyo imprisonment extended for another 10 days, Japanese media has reported. The extension comes after a Tokyo District Court court approved a request from prosecutors to keep the 64-year-old for longer, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. Ghosn has been held since 19 November on suspicion of [...]
Our broken university system is setting future Britain up to fail November 30, 2018 Two news stories this week should strike terror into the hearts of anyone concerned with the British higher education system. First, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) released figures on the impact of a university degree on earning potential, and found that sometimes it just isn’t worth it. By the age of 29, men who studied [...]
UK banks can pat themselves on the back, but the system is still feeling the stress November 30, 2018 Breathe a sigh of relief: once again, all financial institutions have passed the Bank of England’s annual stress tests. But look beneath the surface, and suddenly the various allowances made this week start to undermine the good news. First, if the impact of the new accounting standard IFRS 9 that came into force in January was [...]
The activist investor revolution has begun November 30, 2018 A year ago, anyone attempting to name a FTSE 100 stock that was likely to chart a double-digit share price rise would have been unlikely to name Whitbread. With a big exposure to the British consumer, the owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inns seemed to have too many chips stacked on the wrong part [...]
DEBATE: After one lender launched a six-times-salary deal, are we headed towards a mortgage timebomb? November 30, 2018 After one lender launched a six-times-salary deal, are we headed towards a mortgage timebomb? Andrew Hagger, personal finance expert at MoneyComms, says YES. A shortage in UK housing supply means that property prices continue to increase, albeit at a slower rate in recent months. This means that lenders must stretch their lending criteria in order to [...]
Raid on Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt offices enters second day as shares fall November 30, 2018 A raid on Deutsche Bank’s Frankfurt offices has entered its second day, German prosecutors said this morning, sending shares down by almost three per cent. The operation is targeting two staff members who are alleged to have set up off-shore firms for clients to launder money from criminality. According to a statement from German prosecutors, [...]
A new hope: Backing firms of the future November 30, 2018 If you missed the big news of the last couple of weeks, you must have been hiding under a rock. And no, I’m not talking about the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal – but rather Small Business Saturday, which is returning for a sixth year on 1 December. This is the most important day in the calendar [...]