Zopa’s got a new finance product, expanding into car refinancing loans and more May 19, 2016 Peer-to-peer lender Zopa is branching out with a new loan product offering car refinancing in a bid for a share of the £12bn a year market. Around 40 per cent of Zopa's loans are used for buying a car and Zopa Car ReFi will be a dedicated product aimed at those who already have a car [...]
This one chart shows the impact plain packaging laws had on cigarette sales in Australia (spoiler: it wasn’t much) May 19, 2016 This afternoon, big tobacco companies lost a High Court appeal against new plain packaging rules that will come into effect tomorrow. From 20 May, all cigarette packets will have to look similar under the new domestic laws, with the same green colour, font, size, case and alignment of text on boxes. Read more: Big tobacco [...]
EgyptAir flight MS804 travelling from Paris to Cairo “crashed” into Mediterranean Sea – terrorism cannot be ruled out May 19, 2016 Terrorism cannot be ruled out as the cause of the EgyptAir flight MS804 crash, authorities have said, as the search mission continues. The plane, which was carrying 66 people on board, is believed to have crashed into the Mediterranean Sea early this morning. The Airbus 320 is thought to have dropped 22,000 feet and spun "sharply" before disappearing from radar around [...]
Grayson Perry’s new NSFW City-focused sculpture features George Osborne and pictures of City workers May 19, 2016 What do George Osborne, Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill have in common? They’re just a few of the famous faces plastered across Grayson Perry’s new, er… sculpture. The Turner prize-winning artist has created a 68cm monument to masculinity as a comment on the gender bias of the global banking industry. The ceramic sculpture is covered in [...]
UK M&A is on “hiatus” but will recover whichever way EU vote goes, says private equity chief executive May 19, 2016 The chief executive of private equity company 3i has told how there is a “hiatus” in UK mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the lead up to the EU referendum. But Simon Borrows told City A.M. activity will pick up after the summer no matter which way the vote goes. Shares in the buyout firm [...]
European Central Bank (ECB) is not going to take any more of Germany’s flak May 19, 2016 The European Central Bank (ECB) hit out at criticism of its independence during its monetary policy meeting last month in some surprisingly fiery minutes published this afternoon. The ECB said that it was vital to "counter the perception that monetary policy could no longer contribute to a return of inflation," as the minutes revealed growing exasperation [...]
New EU tobacco rules: In defence of the menthol cigarettes and packs of 10 that will soon be banned May 19, 2016 Among the many petty new rules being introduced in the EU's Tobacco Products Directive, which comes into force tomorrow, is a ban on menthol and a ban on packs of 10. The ban on menthol came about as a result of anti-smoking hype about "characterising flavours". There was much chatter in Brussels about the supposed allure [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open May 19, 2016 Markets are still reeling from the Fed's warning that they're not taking the possibility of a June interest rate hike seriously enough and ratings agency Moody's has downgraded US growth prospects. Here's what you need to know before the US market open at 2:30pm London time. The pre-market is not looking strong this morning follow [...]