Acorn OakNorth rises to $2.3bn valuation as it closes fresh $100m fundraise September 6, 2018 London fintech Acorn Oaknorth has been valued at $2.3bn (£1.8bn) after it secured $100m from two Singaporean state-backed funds EDBI and GIC, as well as NIBC Bank, Clermont Group, and Coltrane Asset Management. The deal represented a total 4.3 per cent holding in the group. The fresh capital, announced yesterday, will be used to power growth [...]
European Court rules that UK pension lifeboat must lift compensation cap September 6, 2018 The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled today that pensioners should receive at least 50 per cent of the value of their pension in the event that their employer goes bust. The UK’s pensions lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), had capped compensation for those that had lost their pensions when their employers [...]
Challenger banking app Monese lands $60m series B from Kinnevik and Augmentum Fintech September 6, 2018 UK and European digital banking app Monese has scored a $60m (£46.4m) series B fundraising round, led by venture capital firm Kinnevik. London-based fintech investment vehicle Augmentum Fintech also got on board to contribute £5.3m, alongside new investors Paypal and Avios. Existing investors such as Investec's INVC Fund also participated. Powered by an e-money licence, Monese has [...]
UK equity funds out of favour due to Brexit as outflows hit £315m September 6, 2018 The UK is "firmly out of favour" with equity fund investors as outflows hit £315m in July. Outflows have totalled £3.5bn so far this year over ongoing Brexit uncertainty, data published by the Investment Association today shows. Read more: Sterling jumps on report Germany and UK could offer key Brexit concessions Funds in the UK were [...]
Is a rise in this niche borrowing a red-flag indicator for the stock market? September 6, 2018 | City Talk “There can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.” John Kenneth Galbraith On The Value Perspective blog, we have a folder of what we call ‘red-flag market indicators’. It has started to bulge as investor confidence, a decade into an equity bull market, continues [...]
The power of appreciation September 6, 2018 | City Talk Appreciation is a greatly under-utilised tool in the leader’s toolkit. The simple act of appreciating your staff will pay huge dividends. Appreciation can simply be the act of paying close attention to someone. Appreciation means the full awareness or understanding of something. So, you could practice appreciation by simply asking a staff member how their [...]
Time for MPs to act on three-year tenancies September 6, 2018 The terms of the debate on longer-term tenancies are well set. On the one hand, tenants deserve to feel at home in their rented accommodation. On the other, there needs to be a stock of rented housing, and if landlords are too penalised, they will leave the market. The debate is now reaching a crunch [...]
Child trust funds: Should you trust your teenager with their financial future? September 6, 2018 On the surface, a product that is designed to encourage parents to save money for their children sounds ideal. But child trust funds (CTFs) are riddled with problems. The first CTFs reached maturity at the beginning of this month, potentially giving some 16-year-olds partial control over a big pot of cash. Introduced by the then [...]
Teach ex-cons the skills that our ever-changing city needs and bring down Britain’s re-offending rate September 6, 2018 Across all the city’s businesses, we are surrounded by talented people. But the roles we need these people to take on, and the skills we need them to have, are changing faster than ever. In the property industry, we’ve seen a huge shift in the skills required to build for our capital’s future – construction [...]
Pensions provider Just delays dividend amid mortgage rule change fears September 6, 2018 Pensions provider Just Group has delayed issuing its half-year dividend due to the threat posed to its finances by new lifetime mortgage rules. The life insurer also reported an 85 per cent increase in its adjusted operating profit to £124m for the six months ending 30 June after “exceptional sales growth” of its retirement products. [...]
