Business travel is back, but not as we knew it November 3, 2022 | Sponsored After the challenges of recent years, business travel continues to bounce back. American Express’ latest research finds that over four in 10 (42%) UK businesses are looking to increase the amount of business travel they undertake over the coming year. 1 The research proves that travel and the value of in-person connections go hand-in-hand in driving [...]
Apollo snapped up $1.1bn from UK pension funds in cash scramble November 2, 2022 Apollo Global revealed it bought over $1bn of assets from distressed UK pension funds as they scrambled to raise cash in the near-meltdown sparked by Liz Truss’s tax-cutting mini-budget.
Looking ahead to the FED this evening November 2, 2022 | City Talk Wednesday the 2nd of November today and we are a few hours away from the next monetary policy update from the Federal Reserve. Looking ahead to today’s meeting the FED is widely expected to hike their target Fed Funds range by another 75 basis points to bring it to a range of 3.75%-4%. This would [...]
Calls for Swiss-UK trade deal grow as financial firms ramp up pressure November 2, 2022 A group of top financial firms has ramped up pressure on the government to strike a “ground-breaking” trade deal with Switzerland today in a bid to ease the flow of cash between the two financial centres. The value of trade between the UK and Switzerland hit £38.4bn last year but companies including Credit Suisse, Deloitte, [...]
Pound climbing fast: UK assets buoyed by PM Sunak as Sterling hits highest level since mini-Budget October 26, 2022 Rishi Sunak’s appointment as PM has buoyed UK assets this morning and is taking the pound towards the 1.16 level against the US dollar, the highest level since the mini-budget. “Almost all news headlines have centred around the appointment of Rishi Sunak as next Tory leader and Prime Minister. Discussing Sterling this morning with City [...]
Borrowing was at £20bn last month, £2bn more than expected October 21, 2022 Public sector borrowing was at £20bn last month exceeding expectations by £2.2bn. The figure is the second highest September borrowing since records began in 1993, and is £8.3bn lower than September 2020 at the height of the pandemic. The PSNB, which excludes pubic sector banks, includes day-to-day expenditure of £79.3bn last month, which was £5.8bn [...]
Demand destruction? Two reasons to be sceptical October 20, 2022 | City Talk Global central banks have made an ‘all-in’ effort to front-load monetary policy tightening to dampen demand. But softer economic data in the eurozone and United States have exacerbated recession fears. As the growth outlook dims, many anticipate demand destruction to lead to lower inflation. That is, tighter monetary policy and the associated higher funding costs [...]
Analysis: Keeping Triple Lock still requires £550k pension for ‘comfortable’ retirement October 19, 2022 Even if the State Pension was uprated in line with September’s inflation figure of 10.1 per cent, pension savers would still need to build up a pot of around £550,000 to ensure a comfortable standard of living in retirement, according to new figures shared with City A.M. this morning. The data comes amid the increased uncertainty over whether the [...]
To triple lock or unlock: Pensioners risk losing out on hundreds of pounds per year if inflation-link is dropped October 19, 2022 This morning’s inflation figures mean that retirees could see their state pension boosted by a whopping 10.1 per cent in 2023/24, but only if Chancellor Jeremy Hunt doesn’t ditch the triple-lock. The increase would be in line with September’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation figure, which is usually used for benefits uprating Increasing the state pension by inflation rather [...]
‘How dare they?’: Klarna chief hits back at critics of Deliveroo deal October 18, 2022 The UK chief of buy-now pay-later firm Klarna has mounted a defence of the firm’s tie-up with Deliveroo today after claims from debt campaigners that the deal will plunge struggling Brits into debt.