PRA under pressure to cut red tape as growth plans fail to excite the City January 22, 2025 The banking regulator is under pressure to go further and faster in its efforts to cut red tape from the City after it outlined plans to boost the growth of firms within its remit last week. In a letter to the Prime Minister and Chancellor, the PRA, which sits within the Bank of England and [...]
How City of London investors are bracing for Donald Trump 2.0 January 20, 2025 City investors are bracing for four more years of unpredictability on the global markets as Donald Trump returns to the White House as president. After banging the drum for punitive trade tariffs and US protectionism in recent months, Trump’s second term is expected to inflict more turmoil on global markets than outgoing president Joe Biden. [...]
FCA chair: Our growth push will test UK’s risk appetite January 20, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) push to slash red tape and unleash growth in the City will test the UK’s appetite for risk, its chair has warned, accepting that two of its new proposals could open the door to more fraud and mortgage defaults. Writing in City AM today, Ashley Alder said the FCA will [...]
Private equity firms under pressure to kickstart UK dealmaking January 14, 2025 Private equity fund managers are coming under mounting pressure from their investors to begin striking deals after a sluggish two years hampered by political turmoil and lofty interest rates, advisers have said. While deal value ticked up through 2024, backers of top private equity funds are taking a “sterner” tone with fund managers after a [...]
Financial M&A surges as banks and insurers hunt for scale January 8, 2025 A wave of banking and insurance tie-ups pushed the volume of UK financial services dealmaking to its highest level in more than a decade last year, new figures show. After a slowdown in 2023, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the UK’s financial services industry rebounded last year with a 26 per cent year-on-year increase [...]
Go further to revive the City of London, voters tell Starmer and Reeves January 8, 2025 Keir Starmer’s government must do more to support the City of London after a bruising year in which fresh IPOs have fallen off a cliff and scores of firms have been picked off by private buyers, a survey of voters has suggested. According to the first of a new monthly City AM/Freshwater Strategy poll, more [...]
Lloyd’s of London insurer snubs the City with New York IPO plans January 6, 2025 A Lloyd’s of London insurer has dealt a fresh blow to the City by snubbing the London Stock Exchange in favour of New York for its planned IPO, piling fresh pressure on the capital’s bourse after it shrank at the fastest pace on record last year. Aspen Insurance, an underwriting firm which operates out of [...]
A turbulent year for London’s markets… in four graphs December 19, 2024 “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel,” said one London Stock Exchange executive in March, just after two more firms announced they were heading for the exit. “Don’t lose your head amongst all the doom-mongering.” It is a mantra that London’s bourse has had to hold onto over the past 12 months as [...]
City of London approves Barbican Centre regeneration ahead of 50th anniversary December 6, 2024 A £191m funding package has been approved to repair and upgrade the Barbican, the City of London’s flagship cultural and performing arts centre. The City of London Corporation approved the package yesterday, and construction on the Barbican Centre will begin in 2027. The package will fund 80 per cent of the first phase of the [...]
Shein: Why the FCA is unlikely to block a blockbuster listing December 3, 2024 The boss of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has insisted he is not the regulator of “every aspect of corporate behaviour” amid growing concerns over plans for the fast fashion retailer Shein to float on the London Stock Exchange. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said it is not within the regulator’s power to [...]