Is technology a new asset class? February 23, 2021 With Covid-19 accelerating digitalisation, the question facing many companies is no longer whether technology is important, but just how important? What percentage of their time should a bank or retailer’s top executives spend thinking about technology? How much investment should a company make in tech? What weighting should institutional and retail investors give the sector? [...]
IG Group suspends leveraged bets in 900 shares February 23, 2021 IG Group is withdrawing leveraged share bets on hundreds of firms as the London-based company reacts to the day-trading trend gripping financial markets.
Boris Johnson’s lockdown roadmap needs short-term hope and yes, takeaway pints February 23, 2021 In two weeks, we will be legally allowed to sit on a park bench with a friend and have a coffee. In five weeks, two whole households will be given the go-ahead to see one another outdoors. Boris Johnson’s plan to exit lockdown seems completely oblivious to what is happening outside his front door. It [...]
Business rates from the 16th century are ruining the high-street and an online sales tax isn’t enough February 23, 2021 The pandemic is in many ways not a break from the past but a rapid accelerator, and nowhere has the world sped up as much as in our shopping habits. In the last year, more retail sales shifted onto the internet than had done so in the previous decade. UK consumers spent £24 in every [...]
Squeamish ministers must include casual sex exemption in lockdown roadmap February 23, 2021 Sex and intimacy are a part of what makes us human, but the infinite ways that we all experience our sexuality and inter-personal relationships have been completely lost in the Government’s approach to lockdown and yesterday’s roadmap did not offer any real light at the end of the tunnel. For most of the past year, [...]
Post-Brexit regulatory changes for the City could free up £95bn, says study February 23, 2021 The UK could free up £95bn for City insurance firms to reinvestment into the economy if the Treasury waters down the EU’s Solvency II regulations post-Brexit, according to a new study. The Association of British Insurers report, researched by accounting firm KPMG, recommends easing the cap on how much capital insurance firms must hold at [...]
BoE policymaker: ‘Five per cent interest rates won’t return in my lifetime’ February 22, 2021 Bank of England policymaker Gertjan Vlieghe said he did not expect British interest rates to return to levels common before the 2008 financial crisis during his lifetime, due partly to the effect of an ageing population. Vlieghe, 49, said longer life expectancies and more time spent in retirement had boosted demand for safe retirement assets, [...]
Gig economy workers to nab 20 per cent of financial services jobs February 22, 2021 Gig economy workers will soon make up between 15 and 20 per cent of the workforce at financial services firms, up from the current five per cent of workers. In the next three to five years so-called ‘gig workers’ will become increasingly common at financial services firms, more than half (52%) of financial services firms [...]
Alphabet-backed health insurance startup Oscar aims to raise more than $1bn in upcoming IPO February 22, 2021 Oscar Health Insurance is planning on raising more than $1 billion in its IPO.
EU ministers agree to sanction Russian officials responsible for Navalny imprisonment February 22, 2021 The EU agreed this evening to sanction Russian officials directly responsible for jailing opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russia, according to German foreign minister Heiko Mass. Today’s agreement came after France, Germany, Poland and the Baltic countries had urged the bloc to confront the Kremlin. Mass told reporters that “the EU will not be silent. [...]
