By: Samuel Norman

Senior City Reporter Samuel is a Senior City Reporter covering banking and fintech as well as stories on capital markets and economics. He also leads on City AM's morning liveblog from 7am everyday. He has previously written for the Daily Mail and The i Paper and worked for Sky News as an election stringer. He enjoys writing in-depth analysis of major blue-chip firms and start-ups and also industry trends. He can be contacted at samuel.norman@cityam.com and posts on LinkedIn and X at x.com/samnormanwrites.

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Spring Statement 2025: Markets ‘shrug off’ speech as gilt sales revised lower

March 26, 2025

The Debt Management Office (DMO) said it was planning £299bn of gilt sales in 2025 to 2026, slightly below the £302bn initially expected despite the government’s borrowing plans. However, this still marked the most extensive package since the pandemic. The DMO said it would issue the smallest selection of long-maturity gilts in its 27-year history [...]
Spring Statement 2025: Markets and bonds tread water ahead of ‘testing day’

March 26, 2025

Markets and bonds were relatively flat on Wednesday morning as analysts predicted Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement would mark a “testing day”. The FTSE 100 had minor gains following market open, with Marks and Spencer leading the index’s biggest risers. The mid-cap FTSE 250 had a slight uptick, led by a surge in retailer Ocado after [...]
Reeves urged to drive financial literacy in Spring Statement

March 25, 2025

In what will be a busy week for the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves has been urged to not forget the importance of improving financial literacy in her Spring Statement. Jordan Sinclair, the president of financial services firm Robinhood UK, told City AM the UK has “the ingredients in order to improve” but now was the time [...]
City regulator faces grilling on Treasury’s growth agenda

March 25, 2025

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was grilled by the Treasury Committee on Tuesday after it unveiled its new five-year strategy. Members of the committee questioned the gap between the government’s growth agenda and how the FCA was prepared to deregulate. Chair of the Treasury Committee Dame Meg Hillier, said the regulator’s structure led to it [...]
Small businesses to offload Reeves’ tax hikes onto customers

March 25, 2025

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have taken steps to combat the Chancellor’s tax hikes as they brace for further changes in Reeves’ Spring Statement. Fresh research from Grant Thornton showed 71 per cent of SMEs have formed plans to offload rising employment costs onto consumers – a 15 per cent increase from December. Almost seven [...]
Labour’s National Wealth Fund slammed for ‘completely misleading’ rebrand

March 25, 2025

The government has been accused of “gaslighting the British public” over its National Wealth Fund as the Treasury committee announced on Monday it had launched an inquiry into the new body. Originally a fixture of Labour’s 2024 manifesto – the National Wealth Fund was to consolidate the British Business Bank and the UK Infrastructure Bank, [...]
Small businesses at ‘breaking point’ ahead of Spring Statement

March 24, 2025

Small businesses are at “breaking point” just days ahead of Rachel Reeves‘ Spring Statement, an insurance boss has warned. Almost one in five small business owners have said they will be forced out of business within a year due to bleak economic conditions, according to data from Simply Business. As many fear the increasing costs [...]
Reeves told to use Spring Statement to fix ‘unintended consequences’ of Budget

March 24, 2025

Rachel Reeves must use the Spring Statement to fix the “unintended consequences” of her Autumn Budget, the boss of a tax services firm has said. Tom Shave, President of the Europe and Asia-Pacific division at Ryan, has urged the Chancellor to use Wednesday’s update to provide businesses under economic pressure necessary support. Shave anticipated Reeves’ [...]
Banks turn to AI to lead fraud prevention efforts

March 23, 2025

As Britain’s biggest banks scale up their technology, lenders are turning to AI to fight fraud, a new report has found. NTT Data’s ‘Banking Trends 2025’ report found over half of UK banks thought generative AI was key to fraud prevention. Lenders have been urged to up their consumer protection abilities after Chair of the [...]
Analysts downgrade Close Brothers’ ‘beaten up’ shares

March 21, 2025

Analysts have said Close Brothers shares are worth 340p – a 20p downgrade from their previous price target. The lender suffered a profit hit in its half-year results, plunging to a £104m loss. A £165m provision for motor finance payouts drove the bank’s woes, with shares falling as much as 24 per cent on Tuesday. [...]

From start-up to scale-up: shifting the focus to support for female entrepreneurs

Abramovich to fight UK Government over funds from £2.5bn Chelsea sale

Aboard the Celebrity Cruises ship with Gwyneth Paltrow partnership

By: Samuel Norman

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