How London can fend off the European hotspots vying for its fintech crown October 1, 2018 Flash back to the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote. “London has committed suicide as a leading fintech centre,” tweeted Traxpay, a German payments platform. Catchy advertising urged startups to “keep calm and move to Berlin”. Read more: Meet the startups in the Treasury-backed Tech Nation fintech accelerator Over two years later, and it’s French [...]
Debate: Are British high street banks a good opportunity for investors at the moment? September 26, 2018 Debate: Are British high street banks a good opportunity for investors at the moment? Yes – Richard Buxton is chief executive and a fund manager at Old Mutual Global Investors. As a long-term investor in UK banks, the most recent reporting season came as a welcome relief. The litany of conduct charges and regulatory [...]
Patchy regulation prevents the world from reaping the full benefits of the markets September 25, 2018 Ten years ago today, the world woke to the news that yet another bank had collapsed. Washington Mutual was the latest casualty in what became the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Those events have cast a long shadow. Governments, businesses, and households have had to tackle the legacy of that crisis. As [...]
Strictly Come Dancing professionals make a PR misstep in potential pay row dispute September 24, 2018 Glitter balls, sequins, the foxtrot, and the rest… Daaarling! It is that time of the year again as Strictly Come Dancing waltzed back on to our screens on Saturday night. New celebs, new dancers, new routine – same old format. There will be Craig Revel Horwood looking unimpressed, break-ups, make-ups, tears, injuries, tantrums, and [...]
RBS in talks with the Bank of England over share buyback plans September 20, 2018 The Royal Bank of Scotland has started discussions with the Bank of England over a special share buyback in a bid to speed up the privatisation process. Speaking at a conference in New York RBS deputy chief financial officer Katie Murray confirmed that the bank is in talks with the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) over the details of [...]
Davis set to savage Chequers as May awaits EU verdict on key proposals September 20, 2018 Theresa May last night urged EU leaders to stop trying to break up the UK as she warned there were just two months left to strike a Brexit deal. Speaking directly to her counterparts at a dinner in Salzburg last night, the Prime Minister made it clear that if an agreement were not reached by [...]
City regulators demand banks and insurers reveal plans to move away from Libor September 19, 2018 The City's top regulators today demanded banks and insurers tell them their plans for moving away from the Libor rate used in contracts worth trillions of pounds. Firms are currently contemplating how to transfer often complex contracts and systems referencing the rate onto new benchmarks before 2021, when the scandal-hit Libor may become defunct. The [...]
Inflation driven to six-month high by fuel and package holiday prices September 19, 2018 Inflation in the British economy rose at its fastest rate in six months in the year to August, with increases in prices of petrol and package holidays among the main contributors to price growth. The consumer price index (CPI) tracking inflation rose by 2.7 per cent compared to last year, according to the Office for National [...]
Businesses should become radically transparent, open, and honest – even about salaries September 19, 2018 Slowly but surely, the secretive, paternalistic corporate culture of the past is being infiltrated by a new approach that embraces the concept of radical transparency. There’s a new breed of organisation that thrives on the notion of having no secrets from its employees, its customers, or any other stakeholders. These companies share every last detail [...]
The Bank of England’s own data negates Carney’s overhyped house price warning September 19, 2018 No one can tell them quite like Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England. He appears to have briefed the cabinet last week that house prices could fall by 35 per cent in the event of a no-deal Brexit. To be fair, the Bank did try to qualify this figure by saying that [...]