Real Madrid top Deloitte Football Money League as Champions League revamp boosts Premier League’s rivals
Why pensioners are probably earning more than you are October 20, 2015 Pensioners are better off than ever before, earning more on average than people of working age, according to new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). IFS director Paul Johnson said last night that IFS research suggests that pensioners’ incomes will continue to rise for at least the next decade – but it is [...]
Funding Circle buys German startup Zencap from Rocket Internet for European expansion plans October 20, 2015 UK fintech unicorn Funding Circle is continuing its world domination with the acquisition of German lender Zencap, to fuel European expansion plans. The peer-to-peer lender picked up the startup from incubator Rocket Internet for an undisclosed sum, giving it access to the small business lending market, which is worth one trillion euros across Europe – more than [...]
Moonpig owner Photobox snapped up by Exponent Private Equity and Electra Partners October 20, 2015 The owner of online greeting card website Moongpig.com, Photobox, has received a buyout offer from Exponent Private Equity and Electra Partners which is reportedly around £400m. It comes over a year after Photobox abandoned plans to float on the London Stock Exchange for £500m, citing the volatile stock market performance of other companies which had taken the plunge. The [...]
We’re buying more and more of our wine online as millennials learn to drink wine October 20, 2015 Don’t drink and… click? Britons are ignoring this advice, it seems. Online sales of wine are going through the roof, as the country’s millennials are growing up and learning to appreciate the taste of a nice bottle of plonk. E-commerce is driving nearly all of wine retail’s growth, according to Rabobank’s latest Wine Quarterly report. [...]
Consumer anxiety around rogue traders and cowboy builders is costing the UK £6bn – FMB October 20, 2015 Shoddy tradespeople and cowboy builders are costing the UK economy more than £6bn a year, according to new research out today from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). The data shows that consumers are letting their anxiety around hiring poor workmen curb their spending on home improvements. One in five consumers with building or repair [...]
Why the UK pensions triple-lock is a costly economic – and political – mistake October 19, 2015 Politicians spend much of their time worrying about repeating the political mistakes of their predecessors. In recent weeks, Conservative MPs have mused over whether changes to tax credits could have the same impact on support for the government as Gordon Brown’s abolition of the 10p tax rate, or could even be their “poll tax”. Yet [...]
Judge P2P firms on whether they’re profitable – not just on how much money they’ve lent October 19, 2015 Three years ago this week, the veteran venture capitalist Robin Klein made the case in these pages for greater support for UK high growth technology companies in their push into mainstream London capital markets. Over time, confidence grew and several good firms were helped onto the public markets through the London Stock Exchange’s High Growth [...]
Head of P2P Finance Association: Why investors shouldn’t worry about platforms failing October 19, 2015 We know how important it is, in a new market like peer-to-peer lending, that consumers feel confident they are giving their money to honest and trustworthy players. That’s why the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) has put so much effort into ensuring that the UK benefits from a sound regulatory regime for P2P lending. There has [...]
Now Virgin Money is getting into the money transfer business October 19, 2015 Challenger bank Virgin Money is expanding its services and getting into the money transfer business for the first time, underpinned by technology from fintech startup World First. The new service will let customers make international transfers with no transfer fees and Virgin promising to offer better rates than quotes offered by high street banks. Virgin Money [...]
There’s no room for complacency if we want to keep UK startups booming October 19, 2015 Unemployment is in decline. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of people out of work is at its lowest since the onset of the 2008 economic crisis. By the same token, employment is at its highest since records began in 1971. This is in no small part due [...]
