Buy now pay later schemes need light-touch regulation to protect consumers and nurture economic growth July 9, 2021 The rise of buy now, pay later schemes has been remarkable in the UK. New financing products have flooded the market and revolutionised the online retail and consumer credit market. The use of delayed payments has nearly quadrupled in 2020, with 5 million people using them since the start of the pandemic. Klarna, now the [...]
Screenshot: Should the UK tech sector really be cashing in its chips? July 9, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Tesco’s football fail **Should the UK tech sector really be cashing in its chips? **A Wise move Media Moment of the Week: Tesco’s football fail Once again the internet was awash with football this week, and plenty of brands decided to jump on the England bandwagon for a [...]
Grant Shapps has reopened travel but plans to manually check vaccine statuses is out of the dark ages July 9, 2021 Yesterday, Grant Shapps announced the new plans to finally allow the travel sector to reopen by allowing fully-vaccinated people to skip quarantine upon return from Amber list countries. However, the Transport Secretary admitted travellers should “expect” queues at border control as a result of the stack of paperwork passengers now need to fill out. Despite [...]
Brexit: Financial services will thrive on the world stage with access to rich foreign markets July 9, 2021 Something has changed in financial services. The events of the last week have put this beyond doubt. In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, we were focused on designing a deep and comprehensive relationship with the EU based on alignment. When that was rejected, we hoped for the significantly less comprehensive equivalence determinations. As the [...]
Socialism is on the rise in the UK – we need radical free-market solutions to issues like the housing crisis to fight it July 8, 2021 Last Friday, an underwater oil pipeline burst in the Gulf of Mexico. Spectacular images of a burning oil patch, which looked a lot like the “eye of Sauron” from Lord of the Rings, quickly went viral around the world. What had gone wrong? It did not take long for Twitter to reach its verdict: the [...]
DEBATE: Do banks still need a high-street presence? July 8, 2021 Monzo, Revolut and Starling are all household names. People can open accounts without ever speaking with an employee and most don’t have any branches at all. High-street banks are also closing down and the mass transition towards online banking has only been expedited by the pandemic. Do banks still need a high street presence? Gareth [...]
Responsible investing is not a bubble set to burst, it is a greater structural evolution July 8, 2021 In recent months concerns have grown about responsible investment “bubbles”. In May, MSCI warned that clean energy exchange-traded funds are as crowded as technology stocks were at the height of the 1999 boom. Yet, whether we like it or not, bubbles are exactly what we should expect at this stage of the sustainable economic transition. [...]
Bank of England and FCA: Financial services’ bottom lines will be hit if they ignore diversity and inclusion July 8, 2021 The financial services industry, like many other areas in our society, has made slow progress in becoming more diverse and inclusive. In recent years, social movements in the U.K. and around the world, have put an acute focus on these issues. Where these wider social issues impact the statutory objectives the UK’s financial regulatory authorities [...]
Editorial: A growing talent time-bomb is putting London’s economic recovery in peril July 7, 2021 London feels more normal than it has done for a long time. Soho is buzzing, Oxford Street has begun to see elements of a footfall revival, and at certain times in recent weeks it’s been possible to see young men of a certain age getting merrily tanked up before going to the football. And not [...]
The power vacuum in Afghanistan left by the US and the UK will draw Beijing’s watchful gaze July 7, 2021 Foreign combat operations ended in Afghanistan years ago. For the past few years, barely 10,000 NATO forces have been helping enable a force of some 400,000 Afghans with the necessary equipment and capability to build the state. Those support operations ended with the withdrawal this week. Since the abrupt departure of Western soldiers, Afghan forces have [...]