FCA complaints are still dominated by PPI mis-selling October 6, 2016 The number of complaints lodged against financial services firms nudged down in the first six months of 2016 according to statistics released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The total number of complaints dropped by 2.6 per cent compared with the final six months of 2015. Barclays topped the list and received over a quarter of a million objections. Top five [...]
What a difference three and a half weeks makes? Tracking HabourVest’s hostile takeover attempt of SVG Capital October 6, 2016 It has been a strange three and a half weeks for chief executive Lynn Fordham and her board at SVG Capital (SVG). Sources close to the company said that SVG's board was only informed of HarbourVest's hostile takeover bid late in the evening on 11 September and in the weeks that followed the US-giant quickly gathered sufficient shareholder backing for its takeover offer. [...]
HarbourVest’s takeover of SVG Capital hit by withdrawal of support October 5, 2016 Two key institutional investors have withdrawn their support of HabourVest’s hostile £1bn takeover attempt of SVG Capital (SVG). Legal & General and Aviva – who own 4.5 and 2.8 per cent stakes in SVG respectively – had previously signed non-binding letters of intent to support the US-fund’s offer. Hours earlier, SVG’s board redoubled its efforts [...]
City watchdog fines Aviva companies £8.2m for failing to police outsourcers looking after client money October 5, 2016 The City regulator has today slapped two Aviva businesses with a £8.2m penalty. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Aviva Pension Trustees UK and Aviva Wrap UK for failing to properly oversee work it had outsourced in relation to protecting client assets. In particular, the FCA asserts that these failings were a breach of the Client Assets Sourcebook [...]
City Moves for 4 October 2016 | Who’s switching jobs October 4, 2016 Edison Edison, an investor relations and investment research company, has hired Elliott Berstock to the role of account manager in the investor relations team. Elliott brings to Edison more than 10 years’ capital markets experience in the investment industry, joining from Capital Access Group, where he held the positions of associate director of investor relations and [...]
Retail fund sales turned positive in August October 3, 2016 Retail fund sales became positive in August for the first time since April, as net retail sales hit £1.7bn. According to Hargreaves Lansdown, this was due to £1.2bn of inflows into fixed income funds. There was an outflow of £629m from equity funds. Read more: Standard Life will re-open its property fund in October Property [...]
Legal & General says it will double new business sales in retirement division in 2016 September 27, 2016 Legal & General said today that it's on track to double new business sales in its retirement division, with sales currently at £5.4bn – compared with £2.9bn for last year. The group said its retirement business "continues to experience strong growth in pension de-risking and lifetime mortgages," and demand has not been hindered by the introduction [...]
Standard Life will re-open its property fund in October September 26, 2016 Standard Life Investments will re-open its property fund in October after disposing of assets during a period of suspension. After the Brexit vote, several property funds were forced to suspend trading due to a spike in redemption requests, freezing £15-20bn worth of funds. Standard Life said it would open the fund again on 17 October [...]
Brexit and the City: Here are the names you need to know September 25, 2016 As rumours circulate that Article 50 could be triggered towards the start of next year, many in London are more than a little curious as to what the City will look like post-Brexit and who will be fighting to keep their best interests front and centre during the course of the negotiations. City A.M. profiles some [...]
Happy Brexiversary – these are the funds that have performed the worst since the EU referendum September 23, 2016 It's been three months since the Brexit vote. A lot has happened – but some of the worst hit (apart from David Cameron and George Osborne) were property funds. Several funds were forced to block withdrawals after the Brexit vote – closing the gate on £15bn-£20bn worth of funds – because investors were taking out so much money; several more imposed fair [...]