Santander and Visa veterans join UK Finance board October 14, 2019 UK Finance has added Santander executive Susan Allen and chief executive of Visa Europe Charlotte Hogg to its board. Allen is Santander’s head of retail and business banking in the UK, and is responsible for the bank’s 15 million retail and business customers in the UK, as well as its nationwide network of branches. Read [...]
Exclusive: Queen’s Speech to include Financial Services Bill in bid to safeguard City October 14, 2019 Plans to safeguard the City’s global pre-eminence after Brexit will be laid bare today in the Queen’s Speech. City A.M. understands the government will include a Financial Services Bill in its legislation as part of an effort to ensure the sector stays at the forefront of international trading after it leaves the EU. Read more: [...]
UK financial services firms leading the way on automation October 14, 2019 Financial services firms in the UK are integrating robo-advisers into their ranks faster than their global competitors in a bid to harness the technology to retain customers – or poach new ones, new research has found. While 37 per cent of UK financial services firms surveyed have implemented robotic processing automation (RPA) – a technology [...]
Mastercard and Visa join Paypal and others in abandoning Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project October 12, 2019 Mastercard, Visa, eBay and Stripe have all pulled out of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra. It comes a week Paypal announced they were withdrawing from Libra and is a huge blow to the social network’s plans to launch what it envisioned as a global currency. Read more: Paypal become first firm to drop out of Facebook’s [...]
Facebook pays just £28m in UK corporation tax in 2018 after sales worth almost £800m October 11, 2019 Facebook paid just £28m in UK corporation tax in 2018 according to its latest filing at Companies House. This is despite it having recognised sales worth £797m with a gross profit of £763.4m for the year. Read more: OECD targets tech giants as it shakes up global tax rules It is the latest example of [...]
Bank of England launches new £20 note featuring JMW Turner October 10, 2019 The Bank of England (BoE) has launched a new polymer £20 note featuring British painter JMW Turner. BoE governor Mark Carney announced that Turner would be replacing 18th Century economist Adam Smith as the face of the banknote at an event at the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate. Read more: Britain’s financial system ‘prepared’ for [...]
London house prices suffer steepest fall since financial crisis October 10, 2019 London house prices fell at their fastest rate since the financial crisis in the third quarter, according to Halifax. Homes in the capital saw their values sink 1.7 per cent year on year, their worst performance since autumn 2009. Meanwhile south east house prices dropped 1.3 per cent. Read more: Brexit uncertainty takes a bite [...]
Britain’s financial system ‘prepared’ for worst case Brexit scenario, says Bank of England October 9, 2019 Britain’s banks and financial system are prepared for a “worst case disorderly Brexit”, the Bank of England (BoE) said, although it warned there could still be disruption, particularly for borrowers from the European Union (EU). Extensive preparations by UK authorities and businesses have mitigated “most risks to UK financial stability that could arise from disruption [...]
Why the Bank of England isn’t topping up the punch bowl October 9, 2019 Many economists will remember 2019 as the year of the monetary policy U-turn by central bankers around the world. At the end of 2018, the US Federal Reserve, which tends to lead the herd, signaled multiple rate hikes in the year ahead. Just three months on, its forecasts were cut sharply to zero and by [...]
Bank of England sets out strict regulatory conditions for Facebook Libra October 9, 2019 The Bank of England (BoE) has set out the rules of engagement that Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency and other similar digital payment providers would have to satisfy before they can launch in Britain. “Libra has the potential to become a systemically important payment system,” the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said in a policy statement released [...]