Rishi Sunak considers cutting furlough pay to 60 per cent of wages May 5, 2020 As part of a review of the job retention scheme, the government is reportedly considering cutting the 80 per cent wage subsidy to 60 per cent for furloughed staff. The job retention scheme sees the government pay 80 per cent of wages, up to £2,500 a month, to 6.3m furloughed workers. However, chancellor Rishi Sunak [...]
Remote working is causing employees to feel overworked May 5, 2020 Remote working is encouraging a culture of so-called EPresenteeism, according to a new survey, leading employees to feeling overworked and overwhelmed. Four in five HR managers think working from home has encouraged EPresenteeism, meaning employees feel they should be online and available as much as possible. Research commissioned by LinkedIn, in partnership with the Mental [...]
Private equity funds set to target Aim-listed firms May 4, 2020 Private equity funds are expected to target Aim-listed companies once lockdown has eased and dealmaking is resumed. The number of private equity-backed deals for Aim companies trebled in the past 12 months. PE funds bought and took 12 companies private in 2019/20, compared to just four deals in the previous year ended 31 March. Aim [...]
US factory orders plunged 10.3 per cent in March May 4, 2020 Orders for US-made goods plunged 10.3 per cent in March, and could fall further as coronavirus shutters the economy. The US Department of Commerce said factory orders declined 10.3 per cent, as coronavirus lockdown measures began to shut down the economy. The steeper than expected fall in orders came as orders for both durable and [...]
Investment firms deploying new tech are the most trusted among investors May 4, 2020 Investment firms that are deploying new technology are the most trusted by both institutional and retail investors, according to new research. Nearly two-thirds of institutional investors and nearly half of retail investors with an adviser trust their investment firm because of an increased use of technology. There is growing interest in the use of artificial [...]
England’s coronavirus hospital death toll sees smallest rise since March May 4, 2020 England’s coronavirus hospital death toll rose 204 to 21,384 today, the lowest daily increase since late March. NHS England said that three of the 204 patients who died from coronavirus had no underlying health conditions. The UK has recorded 187,842 confirmed cases and 28,446 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Last week, Prime Minister [...]
Elon Musk tweets that Tesla stock price is ‘too high’ as he rails against lockdown again May 1, 2020 Outspoken Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has said Tesla stock is “too high” and called once again for the end of lockdown measures. The Tesla boss has come under fire for tweeting about the company’s stock in the past. In 2018, he was sued by the SEC after it argued Musk had made false statements [...]
Why RBS killed digital bank Bo only five months after launch May 1, 2020 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has abandoned its challenger bank Bo just five months after launching it. In an already dire update on its first quarter performance today, RBS said it would “wind down Bo as a customer-facing brand” after launching it only in November. The Bo platform will instead be integrated with Mettle, [...]
Heathrow expects passenger numbers to fall 97 per cent during ‘major crisis for aviation’ May 1, 2020 Heathrow Airport has called the coronavirus outbreak a “major crisis for global aviation” as it said passenger numbers for last month are expected to be down 97 per cent. The figures Passenger numbers dropped 18.3 per cent during the first quarter to 14.6m. Heathrow expects numbers to be down 97 per cent in April. It [...]
Credit card lending fell for the first time in March May 1, 2020 UK consumers’ credit card debt fell for the first time since records began in March, as lockdown measures froze spending. The annual growth rate of credit card lending fell to minus 0.3 per cent, the first negative annual growth since the Bank of England (BoE) started tracking the data. The annual growth rate of other [...]
