This week: Why the Pound shone over the Euro January 24, 2020 | City Talk After a poor end to last week, the pound responded with a dominant performance this week, gaining an average of 0.8 per cent against the other major currencies. Indeed, it was only the Japanese yen that it lost out to (dropping 0.2 per cent). Such a performance has helped the pound climb to the top [...]
Top five investment risks for 2020: What they said at Davos and how they’ve changed in a decade January 24, 2020 | City Talk As recently as ten years ago the environment didn’t register in the top risks for discussion at the World Economic Forum. Now it dominates. This has important implications for investors. This week the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) is taking place in Davos. Attendees include leaders from the worlds of politics and business who meet [...]
Suffering from choice paralysis? How to defeat the indecision epidemic January 24, 2020 A clearly important decision gets delayed multiple times — or not made at all — causing office-wide frustration. It’s a situation that will sound all too familiar for many of us. In the past, we used to suffer from too few options to choose from; today, we suffer from too many. Abundance of choices has [...]
Incoming BoE head Andrew Bailey to be grilled by LCF mini-bond investigation January 23, 2020 Incoming Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey will be interviewed about his oversight of collapsed investment firm London Capital and Finance (LCF), an independent investigation said today. LCF collapsed in January 2019, leaving 11,600 investors who bought its mini-bonds facing collective losses of up to £237m. While LCF itself and its marketing material was regulated [...]
Shares in AI specialist Blue Prism surge after revenue jumps January 23, 2020 Shares in Blue Prism, a London-based robotic automation specialist, jumped over 20 per cent today after the company reported an 83 per cent increase in revenue. Blue Prism’s revenue for the 12 months ending 31 October rose to £101m, up from £55.2m in 2019, with monthly recurring revenue (MRR) coming in ahead of expectations. The [...]
Watchdog tells financial firms to be ready in case of no-deal Brexit January 23, 2020 Financial firms in the UK should be ready in case Britain does not reach a trade deal with the European Union by December, according to a senior regulator. Britain leaves the EU next week, with “business as usual” transition period in place until December. Formal trade talks are set to begin in the coming weeks. [...]
Build it better: How the office of the future can help save the planet January 23, 2020 Climate change is the headline topic in Davos this week, where business leaders and politicians have gathered for the World Economic Forum. Activist Greta Thunberg told the gathered elite that their inaction over the climate was “fuelling the flames by the hour”. While many may dismiss her warnings (President Donald Trump earlier urged leaders to [...]
Pensions dashboards: Minister urges providers to get data in shape January 23, 2020 Pension providers are facing demands to get customer data in a fit state for the introduction of pensions dashboards. Pensions minister Guy Opperman has urged companies to help pave the way for the dashboards – apps to help people keep track of their savings . The pensions dashboards will give people information about their pensions [...]
Liquidity concerns mount as investors pull £1bn from Mark Barnett’s Invesco funds January 22, 2020 Investors pulled at least £1bn from Invesco funds managed by Mark Barnett in the final quarter of 2019 amid mounting concerns over liquidity following the collapse of Neil Woodford’s investment empire. Estimates from financial data provider Morningstar suggest the three funds managed by Barnett — Invesco Income, High Income, and UK Strategic Income — suffered [...]
Small business finance fintech Liberis raises £32m to boost growth plans January 22, 2020 London-based fintech Liberis has raised £32m to help fund the growth of the small business finance provider and expansion in the US and Europe. The funding raise is the first institutional equity fundraise by Liberis, which lends money to small businesses against their future debit and credit card sales, and was led by investment firm [...]
