After the Nvidelity comes the Huangover. Jensen Huang joins long list who confused boardroom and bedroom
Provident Financial share price up as lender announces boost to profits for year ended December 2015 February 23, 2016 Share price in Provident Financial rose this morning as the company announced a boost to its profits for the year ended December 2015. The lender, which has over 2m customers, reported statutory profits before tax of £273.6m, up 21.8 per cent compared with £224.6m the year before. Shares rose after the results were announced, trading up 2.8 per cent [...]
Bank of England’s Minouche Shafik and Martin Weale expect interest rates to go up sooner than financial markets are expecting February 23, 2016 Interest rates are likely to go up sooner and faster than is currently implied by a gauge of financial market expectations, two Bank of England rate setters have said today. Monetary policy committee member Minouche Shafik said rates would increase faster than implied by the market yield curve. The market yield curve currently points to the first rate [...]
The Bank of England, blockchain and the future of the payments industry: Innovation, resilience or both? February 23, 2016 The Bank of England's principal objective is clear: to maintain monetary and financial stability. It is, therefore, almost by definition, a risk averse institution. Yet in a speech to leaders in the payments industry delivered last month, the Bank’s deputy governor for markets and banking outlined the need to modernise the UK’s real-time gross settlement system (RTGS). This [...]
EU referendum and Brexit explained: Who is “in” and who is “out”, the main issues including immigration and trade, when the vote is scheduled and why it’s important February 22, 2016 To Brexit or not to Brexit? That is the question. But what is a Brexit and why should you care about it? Here's everything you need to know about the EU referendum. What is Brexit? Brexit refers to Britain's exit from the European Union. It's not the only portmanteau of this kind, with Grexit having preceded [...]
Negative interest rates: A “dangerous experiment” with “insidious” effects, economists say – but they’re creeping in to economies around the world. Cash could be abolished while asset bubbles grow February 22, 2016 Negative interest rates creeping into economies around the world have “insidious” effects which is the world is yet to see – and are part of a "dangerous experiment", experts are warning. The impact includes currency weakness, raising bank costs and could even lead to the abolition of cash. The hubbub over interest rate rises in the [...]
EU referendum: We should be very wary of apocalyptic predictions about Brexit, such as those from CitiBank and Goldman Sachs February 22, 2016 In the past few weeks, banks including CitiBank and Goldman Sachs have come out in what is seemingly a coordinated effort to ignite a wave of fear about what Brexit might mean for the UK economy. Unfortunately, the assumptions underpinning their statements are highly selective to the extent that we could be forgiven for thinking they [...]
EU referendum: Brexit will affect business, sterling and interest rates – bond and equity investors must diversify now February 22, 2016 The date of the EU referendum has been announced and battle lines have been drawn over who is in the Remain camp and who is for Brexit. In fact, many MPs have made their stance clear – so now it's just down to the voting public to decide come 23 June. Commentators have been quick [...]
Bank of England governor Mark Carney to face grilling from MPs over potential impact of EU referendum February 22, 2016 Bank of England governor Mark Carney and several of his deputies will likely have to clarify the risks associated with the June referendum on EU membership when they face a grilling from MPs tomorrow. While Carney tried to keep quiet on how the Bank would respond to the upcoming referendum on UK membership of the [...]
Oil prices: Is the age of oil coming to a close? Some say Saudi Arabia’s pumping out black gold because it knows its days are numbered February 18, 2016 It's the conspiracy theories around why Saudi Arabia is keeping oil prices low that make the saga so intriguing. Data shows the Saudis have raised their monthly production levels throughout this spell of cheap oil. The desert kingdom has been blessed with abundant, easy to access reserves of black gold, which are believed to cost around [...]
Osborne’s latest pensions raid: Flat rate tax relief would be both irrational and unfair February 18, 2016 Private pensions have always been a soft target for cash-hungry chancellors. Nigel Lawson made pension funds restrict the size of their surpluses under threat of losing their tax-exempt status. Gordon Brown abolished Advance Corporation Tax in the great pension raid of 1997. And George Osborne has done his bit by slashing the annual and lifetime [...]