The certified investor: IW Capital and Money&Co’s Luke Davis on how to avoid a regulation deluge in the crowdfunding industry January 14, 2016 Before crowdfunding, plenty of private equity and investment firms were already helping their clients to raise money and make investments in smaller firms via the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief. Now, some of the individuals involved have branched out into crowdfunding. Meanwhile, the newest entrants into the crowdfunding market, particularly within equity, are structuring [...]
UK pensions: new survey finds three in four small business owners say auto-enrolment puts too much pressure on their businesses January 12, 2016 Three in four small business owners say that the government’s new rules surrounding workplace pensions put “too much pressure” on businesses of their size, according to a new survey out today from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). After polling more than 1,000 small business owners in November and December, the FSB found that nearly [...]
UK pensions: People need to shop around for an annuity, as difference in rates at upper and lower end of the market for a standard annuity is 17 per cent January 11, 2016 An investment company has urged those purchasing an annuity to shop around, as it today revealed figures that showed the average annuity rate had dropped off in the last quarter. The analysis by Retirement Advantage found that the average annuity rate fell by 3.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2015, thanks in part [...]
The highest flyer: Harriet Green talks Everest, flying cars and building a hi-tech business aged 18 with Gilo Cardozo January 11, 2016 To tell the truth, drones don’t really interest me at all – I like manned aircraft,” says Gilo Cardozo, founder of aviation firm Gilo Industries. He’s not being flippant – he’s got an army of specialist engineers working on engines for unmanned aircraft – but someone so passionate about his work can afford to be slightly [...]
UK Pensions: MPs warn Department for Work and Pensions that people are confused by new state pension and communications need to be improved urgently January 11, 2016 MPs have called on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to urgently change the information sent to people reaching retirement age after it was discovered that confusion was rife over the new state pension. An interim report published today by the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee highlights some of the responses received from [...]
UK legal costs hit $700m for Nortel January 10, 2016 The ongoing row over bankrupt Canadian tech giant Nortel Networks has racked up legal costs in the UK of over $700m (£482m), sources close to the proceedings tell City A.M. Three groups of creditors, including 33,000 UK pensioners, Canadian pensioners and US bondholders, have been unable to agree who gets what from the $7.3bn to [...]
Peer to peer mortgage lender LendInvest hits £500m mark January 8, 2016 LendInvest, the peer-to-peer mortgage provider, has reached a new milestone: it has lent more than £500m in short-to-medium term mortgages. In the first week of 2016, it processed a £5m loan in London, taking the total lent to £501m. The site was the first crowdfunding platform for residential and commercial mortgages and since launching in May [...]
Frazer Thompson of Chapel Down: Why I’m crowdfunding again January 7, 2016 The crowdfunding industry isn’t old enough to have veterans, but it does have experienced players. Frazer Thompson, the chief executive of Chapel Down, is now on his second campaign, raising £1m in return for 5.88 per cent equity on Seedrs to fund a new, state-of-the-art brewery in which the firm will make its Curious Brew beer [...]
Interest rates, a Fintech revolution and more investment in the UK: what former Lord Mayor Roger Gifford predicts for the City of London January 6, 2016 Sir Roger Gifford, member of Multrees Investor Services Board and former Lord Mayor of London, tells City A.M. what he expects for the City of London in 2016. The Fintech revolution The importance of Fintech to London can perhaps be seen most clearly through the 44,000 plus people who are employed in the sector – [...]
UK attracts record £2.46bn of venture capital investment into tech and London secures more than 60 per cent of the funding January 6, 2016 Venture capitalists invested a record $3.6bn (£2.46bn) in the UK's tech scene in 2015, up 70 per cent from the year before, according to data from London and Partners, the Mayor’s promotional company. London-based crowdfunding company, Funding Circle secured the largest single deal of the year with a $150m funding round led by DST Global in April [...]
