By: Harriet Green

I am City A.M.'s deputy business features editor. I look after the Entrepreneurs page, Alternative Finance and our Office Politics section. I also help out with the Forum, running our daily debate. I have a special interest in distributed ledger technology. Prior to working at City A.M., I ran a social enterprise.

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Something fishy: How to deal with a smelly worker

April 26, 2016

I have someone in my team who makes a valuable contribution in every way – except that he comes to work smelling horribly unwashed! I’ve had complaints about it from other people in the team – and they’ve asked me if I can do something about it. This is beyond embarrassing – how can I [...]
Philip Kingsley talks A-list celebrities, chicken droppings and expanding internationally at 85 with Harriet Green

April 25, 2016

When Philip Kingsley – founder of the eponymous hair clinics and product business – is talking about “Larry”, it takes you a moment to realise that he’s telling you about his one-time client, Laurence Olivier. It’s the same when Larry introduced him to Terence [Stamp], Jean [Shrimpton] and Maggie [Smith]. He describes Audrey Hepburn as [...]
P2P lending: Does the industry need more than just transparency?

April 21, 2016

"Skin in the game” is an expression thrown around a lot in the P2P industry. Platforms don’t have banking licences and the majority don’t lend off their own balance sheets. So the question for some time now has been “what loss position will the platform take in the event of loan failure?” With increasing talk [...]
Pitch perfect: How to make sure you always write a killer job ad

April 20, 2016

Getting the right people into your company usually starts with getting the right messages into your job ads. Yet many of the ads we see are just ropey rehashings of the same old corporate clichés. They’ll get you a few applicants, sure. But the best applicants could be overlooking you completely. We think it’s time [...]
P2P lending: These are the nine key trends in alternative finance

April 13, 2016

How will P2P lending fare in a downturn? Can the industry improve securitisation practices? Why did growth slow last year? Is China really the most exciting market? What will consolidation mean for the industry? These are just some of the questions thrown about at LendIt USA. With over 4,000 attendees, including the world’s leading platforms [...]
Blockchain: The president of the San Francisco Fed tells City A.M. why he’s excited about the distributed ledger technology

April 12, 2016

RSCoin is the bitcoin alternative the Bank of England proposed to launch last month. Having its own digital currency would give the central bank a faster payments system, and more of an idea of what’s happening when and where within that system. Speaking to the president of the San Francisco Fed, John C Williams, at [...]
Marketplace lending: How the industry is dealing with securitisation – and does having skin in the game really matter?

April 12, 2016

If you've watched The Big Short, you’ll be able to call to mind a securitisation cheat sheet: big financial institutions – investment banks, quasi-government agencies – bundle together hundreds of loans, then issue bonds to investors, using those assets as backing. In the alternative lending industry, securitisation is an exciting word for some, and a dirty one for [...]
Paypal founder Peter Thiel on why almost all the trends you’re excited about are overrated – and why being involved in the US election would make him blow his brains out

April 12, 2016

“If you hear about a trend, it’s already passed. It means it’s a consensus thing,” says Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist. Speaking at LendIt USA, the largest online lending conference in the world, Thiel says he dislikes being asked what trends he’s excited about because he “isn’t a prophet” and “almost all [...]
Finca International: Chief executive Rupert Scofield talks assassination, booze and changing the world

April 11, 2016

When I spoke to Rupert Scofield, he’d just got in the door from Malawi. His company, Finca International, was celebrating its thirtieth birthday two years late – and marking the launch of its bank in the country. “We had a marching band, all our staff were there. And we’ve opened up right opposite the central bank,” [...]
From unicorns to cockroaches: Alejandro Cremades on why the startup funding landscape is about to change

April 7, 2016

The funding landscape for small businesses in the United States is about to change significantly. Next month, the Jobs Act Title III – the regulation that will give non-accredited investors (people making under $200,000 a year or with a net worth of under $1m excluding their primary residence) the opportunity to invest in startup companies [...]

Two top flight clubs in same league to be owned by same firm after major sport decision

Premier League’s smallest stadium gets approval to begin £90m rebuild

This hotel on the Elizabeth Line is 30 minutes from London but feels totally remote

By: Harriet Green

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