More than a dozen companies exit $11bn Nord Stream 2 project to avoid US sanctions February 24, 2021 Baker Hughes Co, AXA group and 16 other companies have stopped working on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to avoid US sanctions, according to multiple media reports this evening. Russian energy company Gazprom and its partners are in the process of building an $11bn pipeline that will supply natural gas from Russia directly [...]
German accounting watchdog head to step down in wake of Wirecard scandal February 24, 2021 The head of Germany’s accounting watchdog in stepping down, after coming under fire for failing to spot wrongdoing ahead of the collapse of the payments company Wirecard. The agency, formally known as the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP), said in a statement on Wednesday that President Edgar Ernst is leaving his post at his own [...]
Govt should step back and let free markets drive pandemic recovery, says CPS February 24, 2021 Centre for Policy Studies report argues for less government intervention by spending less.
Covid-19: Hospitalisation risk 64 per cent higher with British variant February 24, 2021 People infected with the more contagious British mutation of the coronavirus, first discovered in Kent, have a much higher risk of being hospitalised, according to a new study. The data, published this evening by Denmark’s Serum Institute, which is part of the country’s Ministry of Health, monitored 2,155 people infected with the British variant. Of [...]
European bank giants plot payment network to rival Visa and Mastercard February 24, 2021 Members of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a project launched with the help of 22 banks, said today that a pan-European payment network can be in place by 2025, making the continent “master of its own destiny.” The 22 banks, which include names such as Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and ING, are shareholders in the EPI [...]
Best of travel: Why Panama is Latin America’s hot holiday destination February 24, 2021 To tide us over until we’re able to travel again, we’re republishing classic travel stories from our archives. Today we revisit Alex Dymoke’s trip to Panama to see if it really is all hats and canals. ••• In Britain, Panama is famous for two things: the canal and canoe man. Back in 2002, John Darwin [...]
New report: Greater understanding of financial and professional services essential to boost SME exports February 24, 2021 A new report by EY and the City of London Corporation published today sets out how that financial and professional services (FPS) sector facilitates businesses of all sizes and across all sectors in the UK to trade internationally – and steps needed to deliver a more holistic approach to UK trade policy. The report – ‘The City of [...]
Extending the stamp duty holiday won’t avoid a cliff-edge, it will make the eventual fall steeper February 24, 2021 The stamp duty holiday created a bloated and false economy in the housing market; it’s time to scrap the policy, not extend it. Rishi Sunak introduced the policy last summer. The idea was simple enough – add a bit of fuel to the property market and stoke consumer spending by only making buyers cough up [...]
UK vaccine rollout has no effect on latest BoE economic forecast, says Andrew Bailey February 24, 2021 The UK’s vaccine rollout and new roadmap out of lockdown will not affect the Bank of England’s 2021 economic forecast, according to its governor Andrew Bailey. Bailey said that the latest forecasts, which were done late last year, predicted that economically the UK would be “back to where we were” in early 2022 and that [...]
KPMG enters exclusive talks with private equity firm HIG on sale of restructuring arm February 24, 2021 Big Four firm KPMG has entered into exclusive talks with private equity firm HIG Europe about the sale of its UK restructuring business The deal, first reported by Sky News, could be worth some £400m. KPMG declined to comment on the rumours, and HIG could not be reached for comment. Sky also reported HIG has [...]
