Former speaker John Bercow to be denied peerage July 28, 2020 Former speaker John Bercow is expected this week to be denied a life peerage, after being nominated in Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation list. Bercow is set to be denied by the House of Lords Appointments Commission due to persistent bullying allegations while he was House of Commons speaker. The commission is also expected to deny the [...]
UK housebuilder stocks surge on Help to Buy extension reports July 28, 2020 UK housebuilder stocks surged this morning on reports that the government is preparing to extend the Help to Buy scheme. Barratt Developments’ share price was up 5.07 per cent and Berkeley Group’s shares jumped 4.07 per cent this morning. Taylor Wimpey’s share price increased 3.29 per cent and Persimmon’s stock was up 4.06 per cent. [...]
Germany advises against travel to Spain’s virus-hit regions July 28, 2020 Germany has advised holidaymakers to avoid travel to several regions in Spain that have seen a rise in the number of coronavirus cases. “We currently advise against unnecessary tourist trips to the autonomous communities of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarre due to high infection numbers and local lockdowns,” the foreign ministry said today. Many European countries [...]
Google to build undersea cable between New York and Cornwall July 28, 2020 Google is set to build a subsea network cable between the US, the UK and Spain, it said today. The landing points will be situated in New York, Bude and Bilbao, and is set to go online by 2022. Named after Grace Hopper, who was a pioneering computer scientist, the project will join three existing [...]
UK retail sales bounce back as shops reopen from lockdown July 28, 2020 UK retail sales bounced back in July after “non-essential” shops were reopened, according to a closely watched gauge that hit its highest level since April last year. The CBI’s measure of retail sales volumes rebounded to a score of four in July from minus 37 in June. It indicated that sales grew slightly compared to [...]
LVMH sales slump drags down other luxury stocks July 28, 2020 Shares in luxury goods giant LVMH fell this morning after the Louis Vuitton owner posted a slump in profit and sales in the first half of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The French firm’s share price dipped more than four per cent after it reported a 27 per cent drop in revenue in [...]
SpaceX investor pours $50m into London tech startup Complyadvantage July 28, 2020 Fintech startup Complyadvantage has closed a $50m series C round, as it seeks to disrupt the way global banks tackle financial crime. The round was led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, which has CA$207.4bn in net assets. It made the investment through its innovation arm, which invests in late-stage tech companies. Existing investors [...]
Card Factory online sales soar 120 per cent over lockdown July 28, 2020 Card Factory has avoided its worst case scenario of a staggering drop in store sales since the end of lockdown, it said today, as digital sales soared 120 per cent during the quarantine period. The greetings card retailer said today that store sales have plunged 21.6 per cent year on year since mid-June, better than [...]
Banks lend £49bn to SMEs to survive coronavirus fallout July 28, 2020 Banks have now lent out £49.4bn through the three main government-backed loan schemes, according to Treasury data released today. Banks have given out £33.7bn through the bounce back loan scheme (BBLS) up until the week ending 26 July. The programme sees the government guarantee 100 per cent of bank loans worth up to £50,000 to [...]
Curve hires former Paypal exec as first finance boss July 28, 2020 London fintech startup Curve has hired its first chief financial officer as it looks to expand its product and geographic scope. Curve today announced Scott Weller would be joining the banking platform’s executive team. Weller started his career in Blackrock’s private equity group before joining Paypal as a finance director. There he played a pivotal [...]
