British consumer borrowing growth slowest since 2015 as personal debt stutters August 30, 2018 British consumers added to their borrowing at the slowest pace since the end of 2015 in July, adding to signs the rapid increase in the UK's personal debt pile is losing momentum. The annual growth rate of consumer credit, including credit cards and other forms of non-mortgage debt, slowed to 8.5 per cent, a level of [...]
Mortgage approvals sink back down as housing activity grows thin August 30, 2018 Mortgage approvals suffered a renewed dip in July, underlining fears of stagnant activity levels throughout the UK’s housing market. Last month approvals for house purchases edged down to 65,000, bucking a slow rise to a five-month high in June, according to new bank of England (BoE) statistics. Remortgaging approvals also dropped 5.5 per cent to 45,000 [...]
Europe needs global banks, says Deutsche Bank boss Christian Sewing August 29, 2018 Deutsche Bank still aims to be a global presence in investment banking amid increased appetite for European banks to merge, according to the German lender’s chief executive. Christian Sewing today said that the bank is standing by its international operations as well as home, after pressure from some investors to cut back its once mighty [...]
The impact of a no-deal Brexit should set off alarm bells for the City’s finance firms August 28, 2018 Last week, the government produced papers assessing the impact of a no-deal Brexit scenario on various sectors, including financial services. It is concerning for the sector that a no-deal scenario is looking increasingly likely. The Bank of England governor Mark Carney ranks this possibility as “uncomfortably high”, while foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt suggested that there [...]
Revealed: The skills that will get you jobs with the highest salaries August 28, 2018 Automation isn’t just putting lower-earning jobs at risk; it’s a threat to higher-earning roles too. While AI is putting the likes of customer service agents’ roles are under threat , the technology could replace up to half of banking jobs too, according to Barclays’ former boss Antony Jenkins. Read more: Technology could replace half of [...]
Change is coming. Are you ready to reinvent yourself and your business? August 28, 2018 You can't keep good people down. That’s the takeaway from Usain Bolt’s decision to hang up his running shoes and don his football boots with Australian club the Central Coast Mariners. He used his 32nd birthday last week to practice with the club for the first time and, in so doing, reinvents himself from an [...]
City economists back rumoured extension of Mark Carney’s Bank of England stay August 28, 2018 City economists have eagerly backed Mark Carney to extend his stay at the Bank of England after a report the Treasury had raised the prospect of an extra year with the governor. Carney’s term as governor is due to come to an end in June 2019, a year earlier than first planned. However, an extension [...]
London Euston reopens after bank holiday disruption – but will close again this weekend August 28, 2018 London Euston station will close again this weekend after its closure over the bank holiday weekend caused disruption for passengers up and down the country. The station will remain closed until this Sunday. It has been closed on certain weekends in August while rail workers carry out repairs on the North Wembley junction, one of the [...]
Brains, Chains and Autobots August 28, 2018 They’re usually talked of as completely disparate fields; but ‘Brains and Chains’, or Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies, have already started to converge – despite claims they’re philosophically incompatible. So where’s the join? Google, Amazon, Microsoft and the like have invested billions in AI over the years. Billions more are being poured into Blockchain ventures [...]
Mortgage approvals drop as housing activity slump shows little sign of picking up August 24, 2018 Mortgage lending dipped in July, despite an uptick in homeowners seeking cheaper interest rates ahead of the Bank of England rate rise earlier this month. Approvals for mortgages fell 4.3 per cent year-on-year in July, having risen to a nine-month high in June, in a fresh sign that housing activity in the UK's property market [...]