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 [...]
Digital health firm Babylon mulls $4bn US stock market float February 24, 2021 Babylon is said to be weighing up a US initial public offering that could value the health app at $4bn (£2.8bn). The digital health firm, which offers remote consultations with doctors, has been approached by several bank cheque firms about going public via a Spac deal, Bloomberg reported. The London-based company is also thought to [...]
British Airways owner IAG: What to expect from the airline group’s earnings February 24, 2021 At last, a crack of light. That was the response of most airlines to Boris Johnson’s suggestion that air travel could get going in earnest from 17 May after a full year of grounded planes and sweeping cuts to jobs and routes alike. Expect this future to be fully in focus on Friday, when airlines [...]
Stamp duty holiday: Property experts split on benefits of tax break extension February 24, 2021 The government is reportedly planning to extend the stamp duty holiday to June, with buyers set to save £1.75bn on 300,000 additional transactions, according to the latest research. There are an estimated 628,000 sales in total still currently in the legal process across the country – including those agreed last year – data from Rightmove [...]
