Mortgage approvals rebound after delay on Brexit deadline May 31, 2019 Mortgage approvals for house purchases hit a three-month high in April, rebounding after Britain's March deadline for Brexit was postponed. The number of residential mortgages approved in April ticked up to roughly 66,300, nearing a two-year average and bouncing back from a fall in March, according to new data released this morning by the Bank [...]
Interest rates would be hiked if Britain achieves orderly Brexit, says Bank of England May 30, 2019 Deputy governor of the Bank of England Dave Ramsden has said interest rates would need to be hiked if Britain leaves the European Union in an orderly manner with a transition deal. Read more: Hammond may topple new PM to prevent no-deal Brexit Ramsden, speaking in Inverness, Scotland, said although he expected growth to pick [...]
Online clothes shopping helps UK retail sales beat economists’ expectations in April May 24, 2019 Online clothes purchases and warm weather helped UK retail sales beat economists' expectations in April, official statistics showed today. Read more: Bank of England upgrades UK economy growth forecast Britons bought 5.2 per cent more goods in April than in the same month a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, released today, [...]
UK inflation rises above two per cent target as energy costs increase May 22, 2019 The UK’s core inflation rate climbed to 2.1 per cent in April, as rising energy costs pushed up by the higher Ofgem price cap fed into dearer prices in the economy, official statistics have revealed. Read more: UK economy bounces back, but is growth just a ‘flash in the pan’? Traditionally, inflation above the Bank [...]
Sterling falls below $1.27 for first time since early January as Brexit fears intensify May 21, 2019 Sterling has fallen below $1.27 for the first time since the beginning of the year as Brexit fears intensify. It comes as Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to unveil her “new and improved” Brexit plan to her Cabinet this afternoon in a bid to pass a deal through parliament at the fourth time of asking. [...]
Bank of England deputy recommends ‘British approach’ to post-Brexit financial regulation May 16, 2019 Britain's financial regulations should be just as strict following Brexit, but more power should be handed to regulatory bodies to create “dynamic” rules, Sam Woods, a deputy governor of the Bank of England, has said. Read more: EU officials mulling post-Brexit financial reforms Woods, who is also chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), [...]
Cyber security solutions that are only 95 per cent effective are just not good enough anymore May 16, 2019 The cyber security industry is failing businesses. Cyber criminals are constantly evolving and evading the market’s most sophisticated detection-based security solutions, with government figures showing that 32 per cent of UK businesses have faced a cyber attack or data breach in the past year. Most security solutions take a “best endeavour” approach to defending against [...]
Bank of England director calls for ‘collective solution’ to cyber security threats May 14, 2019 The Bank of England has called for a “collective solution” to tackle cyber security threats similar to the "super shield" system used in the US. The US has implemented a private sector initiative called Sheltered Harbour to protect customers and financial institutions in the event that a cyber attack causes critical systems to fail. Read [...]
Attempts to tackle the ‘problem’ of high pay will end up making everything worse May 10, 2019 The more we learn about what other people earn, the more concern there is about it. Specifically, a political debate is raging over dramatic increases in the pay of chief executives of listed companies. Deemed “unfair” in the widening inequality discussion, pressure is growing from activists and politicians to fix this so-called problem. The latest [...]
Editor’s Notes: Harmony is in short supply in the EU as challenges loom large May 10, 2019 Faced with some major non-Brexit challenges of their own, the leaders of the EU27 and the heads of the EU’s powerful institutions are meeting in Sibiu, Romania for a summit. What’s emerged so far is the Sibiu Declaration, a beautifully vague and vacuous document committing the EU to a range of platitudinous positions such as: [...]