As it happened: Stocks rally; US to unveil ‘economic D-Day’ Iran sanctions August 24, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The FTSE 100 rallied on Monday afternoon following a brief slump in the early afternoon. Wier, Airtel Africa and Intercontinental Hotels Group led the index’s risers while Autotrader and Melrose Industries dragged on the index. The attention of investors is trained on the other side of the Atlantic, [...]
Standard Life partners with Goldman Sachs and CVC to fuel pension risk transfer business August 20, 2026 Standard Life has struck a deal with a group of global finance giants including CVC and Goldman Sachs in a bid to accelerate its push into the booming pension risk transfer market. The FTSE 100 group has joined forces with a CVC-led consortium, which also includes insurer Prudential, to commit as much as £2bn over [...]
Investors risk losing life savings with unregulated services, watchdog warns August 20, 2026 The UK’s financial watchdog has warned everyday investors could lose their life savings if they pump cash into high-risk unregulated investment services. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said the recent failure of Woodville Consultants, a litigation funder which raised cashed through unregulated loan notes, had revealed the risks facing investors. Woodville collapsed in July [...]
Burnham’s devolution drive could ‘push 90,000 jobs out of London’ August 12, 2026 Roughly 90,000 of London’s white-collar jobs could be pushed into other parts of the country as Andy Burnham accelerates his devolution drive, a top recruitment firm has predicted. Legal, banking and accounting firms could be among those to shift thousands of jobs away from the capital in a bid to capitalise on the Prime Minister’s [...]
London IPO candidate Utmost sees inflows slide August 12, 2026 A wealth soultions firm expected to IPO in London later this year has posted a fall in inflows as a boost generated by last year’s UK government tax shake up tailed off. Utmost, owned by private equity firms Oaktree Capital and Brookfield, recorded £4.4bn of inflows in the first half of the year, down from [...]
Aberdeen is back in the FTSE 100 but is Interactive Investor holding it up? August 12, 2026 Five years ago former Aberdeen chief executive Stephen Bird made what would prove to be a disastrous choice when he chose to rebrand the investment manager abrdn. The decision was widely mocked across the Square Mile – including earning the odd jibe in these pages. Some have called Bird’s decision the beginning of his downfall [...]
The European fintech American dream is being called into question August 12, 2026 A double US banking application blow has called into question the fintech dream of landing on Wall Street. In this week’s column, Samuel Norman takes a look at the expansion roadmap for Europe’s top fintechs as well as the latest response to the booming profits in UK banks half-year reports. Denied, denied, withdrawn. That is [...]
Plus500 splashes cash on investors after US expansion bears fruit August 10, 2026 Plus500 has kicked off another round of bumper returns to shareholders after delivering its highest customer income in five years following expansion into the US market. The FTSE 250 fintech recorded revenue of $462.9m for the first half of the year, up 12 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile customer income, which measures revenue generated directly from [...]
Hargreaves Lansdown orders staff back to office August 9, 2026 The UK’s largest DIY investment site is ordering employees back to the office from the start of next year. Hargreaves Lansdown will order its staff into the workplace for three days a week, shortly after the firm moves into its new Bristol office. The wealth manager, which was acquired by buyout firms including CVC Capital [...]
Quilter toasts record inflows as financial advice push pays off August 6, 2026 Quilter has posted record net inflows as the wealth management firm toasts the success of capturing customers seeking financial advice. Total assets under administration and management (AUMA) jumped 25 per cent to £157.4bn in the first half of the year. The hike was driven by a 32 per cent increase in core net inflows to [...]