£350 for your thoughts: Nutmeg enters financial advice market with budget offering October 31, 2018 Online wealth manager Nutmeg revealed plans today to shake up the financial advice market with a low price fixed-fee model. The advice service, which will be provided over the phone, will offer a free initial consultation, followed by a £350 charge should the customer want recommendations. The move is a shift away from the common so-called [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Autumn Budget contained tricks and treats for your personal finances October 31, 2018 The move of this year’s Autumn Budget to Monday this week rather than its traditional Wednesday slot was ostensibly to give MPs more time to debate the chancellor’s proposals before the House of Commons rises for recess on 6 November. But presumably Philip Hammond also hoped to avoid some Halloween-themed headlines, which he himself alluded to [...]
Next shares drop as online shopping boost masks high street malaise October 31, 2018 Clothing and home products retailer Next managed to balance out falling high street sales with its growing online business, its third quarter trading update showed today. Store sales for the quarter were down eight per cent year on year and 6.3 per cent in the year to date compared with 2017. But online sales shot [...]
Proxy adviser Pirc tells shareholders to oppose Go-Ahead’s remuneration policy update October 30, 2018 PROXY adviser Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) has recommended that shareholders oppose Thameslink owner Go-Ahead's payment policy over fears that director pay outs could be excessive. Under the proposed changes to the bus and train company’s variable remuneration scheme the “maximum potential opportunity” could be 300 per cent of chief executive David Brown’s base [...]
Coinbase lands fresh valuation at over $8bn October 30, 2018 Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase today revealed it had raised an additional $300m (£236m) of investment in a series E round led by Tiger Global Management. The move takes the company’s valuation to over $8bn, at a significant leap from its last valuation of $1.6bn last summer. The round was supported by Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen [...]
DEBATE: As we head towards a cashless society, is there any point to a commemorative Brexit coin? October 30, 2018 As we head towards a cashless society, is there any point to a commemorative Brexit coin? Callum Price, events manager at the Centre for Policy Studies, says YES. There is no doubt that we are heading towards an increasingly cashless society, but we are far away from the point at which we will no longer [...]
Happy birthday, bitcoin: Onwards to a brave new crypto-fulled world October 29, 2018 A decde ago this Wednesday, just weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the financial crisis, an anonymous figure published the famous essay – “Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system”. Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, known under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has to this day never been unmasked, but his invention has since [...]
Insolvencies among millenials soar as housing costs shred ‘cash cushions’ October 29, 2018 The number of insolvencies among millenials has climbed rapidly in the past three years, as rising housing prices leave younger people without a “cash cushion” to fall back on. House price inflation is partially driving the trend, which has seen the number of insolvencies among under 35s rise by nearly a fifth during the past year, [...]
Lloyds Banking Group could face £150m pensions hit after court ruling October 26, 2018 Lloyds Banking Group could have to pay out up to £150m after the High Court ruled today that it should equalise payments for male and female members of its pension scheme. Three female members of the pension scheme had complained they were being discriminated against as their pensions increased at a lower rate than that [...]
Market falls: cause for alarm or calm? October 26, 2018 | City Talk Stock markets globally have been falling since the end of September. Economic worries including a potential trade war between the US and China, currency crises in Turkey and Argentina, debt problems in Italy and rising interest rates have seen stocks globally begin to fall from record highs. As the chart shows, since 31 August emerging [...]