Green Bonds are misguided, counter-productive, and an investment handicap November 12, 2020 On Monday, the chancellor announced that the UK government will soon be issuing “Green Bonds”. In separate but related news, Scottish Widows will dump £400m of stocks that don’t meet Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria. ESG compliance has become the first thing discussed at investment committee meetings. Everyone wants to show how green they [...]
Teaching could offer a rewarding career in the ‘new normal’ November 11, 2020 | Sponsored The Covid-19 pandemic has forced all of us to think differently about our own “new normal” once these strange times are over. For some, that will mean thinking about finding a truly rewarding career – with teaching offering exactly that opportunity. As the UK has come together in the face of adversity, many have found [...]
Appetite for hard-to-access capital is driving City investors to private equity November 11, 2020 With governments introducing unparalleled fiscal stimulus to support the economic recovery from ongoing pandemic, and monetary policy signalling a much lower-for-longer interest rate environment than anticipated, investors are increasingly turning to private equity as they look for yield. The investment space has been an uptick in interest from City investors as businesses are thirsty for [...]
Gender pension gap narrows but women still lag behind November 11, 2020 Women will need to work beyond 100 to match men’s pension pots even as the gender pension gap narrows. More women are putting money aside for retirement, with the pension gap closing to just one per cent, the narrowest on record according to pension provider Scottish Widows. Despite this, the gender pay gap and part-time [...]
Leaders in Lockdown: Eyes on the road ahead, there’s no going back November 11, 2020 The hope this week of a Covid-19 vaccine has already got people talking of “going back to normal” — perhaps even by spring. But there will be no going back for British business. The events of the last eight months have changed things forever. In March, as Covid spread from mainland Europe to the City [...]
Our Covid-hit young deserve a new social contract from older generations November 10, 2020 Covid-19 demands immediate action. It also demands a major reconsideration of policies to create a new social contract between the generations. We are all aware that the elderly have a higher risk of death from coronavirus than other age groups. We are also aware that protecting them by locking down the economy has had a [...]
Mobile trading – The power is in your pocket November 9, 2020 | City Talk In the 21st century, there is no longer a single factor that defines all traders across the markets. Your ‘typical trader’ is a thing of the past. In the FX industry a couple of decades ago, being a ‘trader’ mostly meant that you were dressed in a suit, sat coordinating trades on the phone all [...]
Gearing up against greenwashers: investors seek clarity on sustainability terminology November 9, 2020 | City Talk A dearth of clear, agreed sustainability definitions present a challenge to investors looking to invest sustainably. This is according to the results of the Schroders Institutional Investor Study, which surveyed 650 institutional investors across 26 countries during April 2020. Gearing up against greenwashers Greenwashing is about falsely communicating the environmental benefits of a product or [...]
Scottish Widows pulls £440m from investments in ESG push November 9, 2020 Pensions provider Scottish Widows has announced it will pull millions from companies failing to meet its ESG standards. The £440m divestment from companies that “pose significant ESG” risk is the firm’s latest sustainable push, and is one of the largest exclusions policy by an institutional investor yet. The divestment seeks to protect almost 6m customers [...]
Republican civil war looms as Trump stance splits party November 6, 2020 With Democratic candidate Joe Biden closing in on a 2020 election victory, senior figures in the Republican party are split on whether to back Trump as he pedals baseless claims about election fraud. In the last 24 hours Donald Trump has spread falsehoods about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, having claimed mass election fraud [...]
