Beware the cryptocurrency hype February 20, 2018 | City Talk Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, as philosopher George Santayana famously wrote. What’s happening in markets today is a stark reminder of the dot-com days at the end of the last millennium, when company valuations rocketed at the mere mention of internet-related buzzwords. Fortunes were made and lost in relative [...]
Meeting your ISA subscription before the end of the tax year February 20, 2018 | City Talk If you have not used up your ISA allowance for the tax year 2017/18, you are running out of time to make the most of this opportunity. The ISA allowance cannot be carried over once the end of the tax year is reached on April 5 so, if any of the £20,000 allowance you are [...]
Financial planning: Tax efficient investing February 20, 2018 | City Talk The start of a new year is the perfect time to start reviewing your financial arrangements to make sure that you paying only as much tax as you need to. In order to ensure your finances are in the best possible shape for you and your family, follow our guide to maximising your tax efficiency [...]
A new fintech accelerator is launching in London as Investment Association plans VeloCity February 19, 2018 London is getting a new tech accelerator that will focus on fintech, in particular startups looking to shake up the asset management industry. VeloCity will be launched by the Investment Association later this year to bring innovation to the industry. Read more: Maybe it’s time we ditched fintech? Members of the group, which represents more [...]
Where next for markets as Europe moves from recovery to expansion? February 16, 2018 | City Talk Market volatility rose at the start of February against a backdrop of strong economic data, causing many investors to question whether the bull-run for the stock market was over. Can Europe’s economic momentum continue and how will tighter monetary policy affects investments? At the 2018 Schroders Investment Conference investment experts discussed the economic outlook for [...]
What really caused the FTSE 100 “wobble” February 15, 2018 | City Talk Investment commentators clearly dusted off their thesauruses before they spoke to the media to describe the behaviour of financial markets over the last week. "Tumble", "pullback", "pause for breath"? "Shake-out", "setback", "wobble", "plunge"? "Breather", "sell-off", "rout", "correction"? Or perhaps you would prefer a good, old-fashioned "opportunity"? The explanations for the 'sell-off' have been equally as [...]
Oaknorth’s founder is banking on challenging incumbent lenders February 14, 2018 Entrepreneurs are often as grateful for the opportunities that don’t come to fruition as those that do. Take Rishi Khosla: he started his first business with so little capital (he and his business partner, Joel Perlman, had just £40k to invest between them), that frugality became part of its DNA. For three years, he and [...]
A new fintech bank led by a former hedge fund boss has just raised £70m through a float on the London Stock Exchange February 13, 2018 Trufin, a niche technology-enabled bank run by a former hedge fund boss, has just floated on the London Stock Exchange this morning to raise £70m. The fintech-focused business has three divisions including DFC, a short-term lender focusing on financing supply chains, Oxygen Finance, which helps provide early payments to the UK public sector, and Satago, [...]
Shenzhen, San Jose, Tel Aviv: global cities to watch in 2018 February 12, 2018 | City Talk As investors in global cities we compile a biannual index using a number of factors to identify the most economically vibrant cities. With the publication of the latest version of the index, we’ve also taken the opportunity to highlight those cities that we believe have the greatest potential to move up the rankings in 2018. [...]
Charts of the month: Rising bond yields, dividends and Putin February 9, 2018 | City Talk Each month, dozens of charts cross our investment writing desk at Schroders, the asset manager. Here, the team pick out six that particularly caught their interest. Bond yields on the up US Treasury (UST) yields have risen 30 basis points (bps) since the start of 2018, across different maturity levels. We have to go back [...]
