LendingCrowd thinks outside the bank using the power of the crowd November 16, 2016 | City Talk Peer-to-peer firm LendingCrowd was quick to attract investment to grow in Scotland's niche crowdfunding sector. The company also had the vision to appreciate the vast fintech potential here, which thrives on over 1,000 tech firms, together with 600 financial and business companies. It’s not hard to see why peer-to-peer lending has established such a strong foothold in just a handful of [...]
Donald Trump and emerging markets: Why you should buy the Mexican peso, government and corporate bonds November 16, 2016 If the performance of the dollar and US equities has defied forecasts since Donald Trump’s election, the impact on other assets, like US Treasuries and emerging market (EM) securities, has been grimly predictable. EM corporate debt had been one of 2016’s best performing asset classes, and funds which invest in these countries attracted $47bn from [...]
FTSE 250 asset manager ICG’s shares jump seven per cent as profits grow November 15, 2016 FTSE 250-listed Intermediate Capital Group’s (ICG) share price soared more than seven per cent this afternoon after the firm reported rising assets under management (AUM). Total AUM were up two per cent to €22bn (£19bn), with €1.4bn of new money raised, while pre-tax profit came in at £126.2m for the six months to 30 September [...]
Swathes of pensioners are suffering from buyer’s remorse after cashing in pensions November 15, 2016 Tens of thousands of savers are blissfully unaware of the risks of drawing cash lump sums from retirement savings according to research released today. As part of former chancellor George Osborne's push to give Britain's retirees greater pension freedoms, a tax-free lump sum of up to 25 per cent was introduced in 2015. Read more: Enthusiasm for Osborne's [...]
The FCA confirms final rules on capping early exit pension charges November 15, 2016 The City watchdog has announces its final rules on capping early exit charges for pensions. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said today that from 31 March next year, early exit charges will be capped at one per cent of the value of existing contract-based personal pensions, including workplace personal pensions. Early exit charges that are [...]
Aviva warns that current saving levels are not sufficient November 15, 2016 Britons need to be saving a whopping six times more than the minimum levels introduced by the government, according to the UK’s largest general insurer. Aviva said that the British public should be setting aside 12.5 per cent of their salary to save for old age. This compares with the current minimum requirement of two per cent under [...]
Hermes calls for an overhaul of chief exec pay to improve long-term performance November 14, 2016 Hermes Investment Management has called on large publicly listed companies to overhaul executive remuneration models. The company has released a paper outlining why restructuring remuneration practices helps long-term company performance and emphasising the need to address the question of fairness. The proposed reforms include publishing the ratio of chief exec to median worker pay and a [...]
The behavioural biases that explain why Mr Market is unruffled by Mr Trump November 14, 2016 The world is not short of comment and analysis following the election of Donald Trump as US President. In some ways, the coverage is indicative both of the result’s unexpected nature and its historical significance. It is fascinating, therefore, that an event of such magnitude has created barely a ruffle in stock markets. Step back from [...]
The Pensions Regulator rejects claims it was “too heavy-handed” in dishing out fines November 14, 2016 The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has lashed out at claims that nearly all the businesses that challenged auto-enrolment fines had them overturned. A report by payroll platform Paycircle suggested 82 per cent of businesses that pushed back on penalties imposed by TPR had them either "revoked, substituted or varied" during the last quarter. However, TPR condemned the analysis. A spokesperson said: It [...]
Affordable housing could be about to become an asset class in its own right November 14, 2016 Affordable housing could become an asset class in its own right, new research has suggested. A report published today by management consultancy CIL has suggested that, despite having historically been regarded as a challenging area for the construction industry, affordable housing now represents a significant area of opportunity for the sector and for investors. The [...]