FCA fines Deutsche Bank £163m for serious anti-money laundering controls failings January 31, 2017 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has slapped Deutsche Bank with a £163m fine over "serious anti-money laundering controls failings". This is the largest financial penalty relating to money laundering that the regulator, or its predecessor the FSA, has ever imposed. The City watchdog's fine comes after the German lender agreed to a $425m (£340m) settlement [...]
The special M&A relationship survives Brexit vote: US businesses continue to target UK deals January 31, 2017 US business, like the nation’s President, has retained faith in the UK after the Brexit vote, new mergers and acquisitions (M&A) figures released today show. Deloitte’s Deal Monitor tracked 254 deals between the United States and the United Kingdom in the last six months of 2016. Some 172 of the transactions were US-to-UK, a 3.6 per [...]
New small business account, Tide, launches today January 31, 2017 Small businesses on the hunt for a bank account have a new option from today, as Tide launches on iPhone, Android and web. The new app, the first aimed at companies, allows users to set up a fully functioning business account, complete with UK sort code and account number and a Tide Mastercard for daily expenses, [...]
It’s time we saw some real planning reforms in the upcoming housing white paper January 31, 2017 Much like a typical planning application, the housing white paper has already become mired in delay. The policy document, a central plank of Theresa May’s government, was originally due out last year and then put back until January. The smart money is now on publication on 6 February although that date remains unconfirmed. The white [...]
FTSE 100 firms’ agility secrets – and how you can easily replicate them January 31, 2017 Thanks to new technologies, changing customer demands, demographic shifts and globalisation, the world of work has changed significantly. How can businesses respond effectively to this new reality and remain competitive? As the context of business becomes more complex, traditional models of work will come under strain. New, more flexible models will be needed as “agility” [...]
Fake news is troubling – but censorship is far worse January 31, 2017 We're in the grip of a fake news epidemic that is now poisoning our politics. That is the impression one would get from observing the tweets of the great and good. In the aftermath of Brexit in the UK and Donald Trump’s victory in the United States, it has been tempting for those who could [...]
Taking Trump literally: The chaotic US visa ban has revealed the new President to be incompetent or malevolent or both January 31, 2017 Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal and libertarian icon, told us last year to take Donald Trump “seriously but not literally”. Trump was playing to the gallery, Thiel suggested, and if elected would govern seriously and competently – and would quietly forget his more outlandish campaign promises. Naively, I and a few others started to hope [...]
China, Mexico, Japan: Who’s afraid of Trump’s protectionism? January 31, 2017 Anyone hoping that Donald Trump’s campaign promises were just talk can’t have been encouraged by this weekend’s events. Stock markets fell and the dollar was volatile yesterday on the news that the President had signed an executive order banning the entry of people from seven countries. Assumptions that he would row back from his more protectionist [...]
With fresh IMF warnings over Greece’s “unsustainable” debt, is the Eurozone crisis about to heat up again? January 31, 2017 Jennifer McKeown, chief European economist at Capital Economics, says Yes. The IMF’s renewed assertion that Greek public debt is unsustainable is little more than a statement of the obvious. But it suggests that the Fund will not contribute to the bailout as had been hoped, implying that Eurozone creditors will need to foot the bill [...]
UK commercial construction hit a rough patch in 2016, falling nearly 15 per cent January 31, 2017 Commercial construction activity for the 2016 calendar year fell to £16.7bn, down 14.1 per cent on the previous period, according a new report by JLL, the property services company. The reduced work is a result of lower numbers of new build developments, which are down 18.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter, while refurbishments are 6.8 per cent lower [...]