Reading week picks: Will these two books make me a better investor? October 18, 2018 | City Talk For one whole week this summer, the value investment team I lead at Schroders held its inaugural Reading Week – all heading to our respective homes to read books. To be very clear, great care was taken to ensure no portfolios were left unattended and we could always be contacted. Nor, just in case you [...]
Pilfered pens and fudged expenses could foreshadow an ethics scandal October 18, 2018 Are UK employees the least ethical in Europe? The Institute of Business Ethics’ 2018 Ethics at Work Survey seems to indicate so. Brits appear to take a more lenient approach than the average European employee to questionable workplace practices. We asked employees about their attitudes to ethical issues in the workplace, ethical practices in their [...]
Charity case: Don’t lose sight of the small causes October 18, 2018 There is a healthy degree of scepticism around corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Too often, tin rattling or an annual bake sale can seem little more than a get-out clause from engaging in more meaningful activity that requires more effort and commitment. It is tempting for companies to champion high-profile charities that have brand recognition [...]
Accountants can save the world (really) October 18, 2018 Last week, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report due to be presented to governments at the Conference of the Parties in December this year. Its conclusions are stark – global carbon emissions must start to reduce well within 12 years if we are to prevent potentially catastrophic climate change [...]
City Moves for 18 October – who’s switching jobs at TSB, Yapster and Barclays? October 18, 2018 Today’s City Moves cover TSB, Yapster and Barclays. TSB TSB has appointed Niv Subramanian as customer solutions director for its small and medium enterprise (SME) banking leadership team. Niv brings a combination of experience across strategic, commercial and operational roles in retail, commercial and corporate banking, with a keen focus on transforming the SME banking [...]
Ex-Barclays wealth management boss says all banks will use artificial intelligence in next five years October 18, 2018 All banks will use artificial intelligence (AI) in the next five years, according to former Barclays wealth management boss Akshaya Bhargava, as institutions prepare for the $30 trillion (£28 trillion) "great wealth transfer" from baby boomers to millennials. Bhargava, who set up AI fintech platform Bridgeweave after leaving the British bank two years ago, said financial [...]
Digital banking challenger Monese launches business accounts October 18, 2018 Digital banking app Monese will today announce its expansion into the world of business banking, as it launches accounts for young companies and entrepreneurs across the UK and Europe. The accounts will be released to UK-registered businesses first, available in 11 languages in a bid to tap the UK's growing multicultural industry base. The firm told City [...]
Proxy advisor Pirc warns shareholders against Ashmore Investments CEO taking ‘creeping control’ of the company October 17, 2018 Proxy firm Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) has advised shareholders to oppose a controversial Ashmore Investments' proposal over concerns that chief executive Mark Coombs could take "creeping control" of the company. The share buyback proposal, which will be voted on at the fund house's annual general meeting on Friday, could increase Coombs shareholding from 38.61 per cent [...]
How would you like to pay for that, madam? October 17, 2018 | City Talk The global payments industry is dramatically improving due to technology. Mobile has changed everything. Payments are getting faster and smarter. Competition is intense. And payments are revolutionsing markets in the developing world even faster than in the developed world. In just the next seven years, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that widespread adoption and use [...]
Why city parents are sending their children to boarding schools outside the M25 October 17, 2018 Every Sunday evening, there is a quiet exodus of teenagers from capital to countryside. Fleets of shiny, branded minibuses collect their young passengers from affluent London suburbs and whisk them through the darkness to the green and pleasant lands beyond the M25. Boarding school will be their home – until Friday night or Saturday afternoon [...]
