Venture Capital funding hits record high August 14, 2019 Venture capital (VC) funding in the UK soared to a record high during the first half of this year, bolstered by a growing appetite for tech investments. Funding in VC rose to £4.3bn during the first half of 2019, rising 45 per cent on the same period last year. Read more: Barclays stops banking cryptocurrency [...]
Atom Bank, iwoca, Modulr Finance and Currencycloud awarded £40m from RBS banking competition fund August 14, 2019 Four UK financial firms have been handed a combined £40m today from an RBS fund aimed at boosting business banking competition. Atom Bank, iwoca, Modulr Finance and Currencycloud were awarded the new capital as part of an effort to boost lending and payments services to SMEs in the UK. Read more: Barclays stops banking cryptocurrency [...]
Barclays stops banking cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase August 14, 2019 Barclays is no longer providing banking services for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, according to reports by Reuters. The bank had been providing services to Coinbase since the exchange’s European expansion in March last year, making it easier for its users to purchase cryptocurrencies with sterling and withdraw funds. Coinbase, which is based in San Francisco, brokers [...]
Chinese industrial output growth slows to 17-year low August 14, 2019 China’s industrial output growth slowed to a 17-year low in July as the signs mount that the trade war with the US is beginning to take a toll on the world’s second-largest economy. The 4.8 per cent year-on-year growth in factory output was the weakest since February 2002 and far below economists’ expectations of a [...]
City Moves for 13 August – Who’s switching jobs at Circassia, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RPMI? August 13, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes Circassia, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RPMI. Circassia Dr Rod Hafner, senior vice president of research and development at Circassia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on respiratory disease, will step down from the board after 11 years as a director. However, Rod will remain part of the senior management [...]
Deloitte sued for £20m over collapse of storage firm August 11, 2019 A Yorkshire-based businessman is suing big four accountant Deloitte and international law firm Clyde & Co over allegations that Barclays bank exerted “informal control” over the financial giants during the winding down of his firm. Jason Schofield, a businessman who ran Leeds’ based storage firm Rhino Enterprises, is suing two joint administrators at Deloitte and [...]
RBS to select Alison Rose to become first female chief executive August 10, 2019 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to pick Alison Rose to become its new chief executive. Rose will become the first woman to lead one of the UK’s biggest high street lenders and is likely to be named as Ross McEwan’s successor in the coming weeks, Sky News claim. Read more: Outgoing RBS [...]
Italy’s political crisis triggers bond sell-off and shakes European markets August 9, 2019 Traders have sold off Italian government bonds and European stock markets are in the red after League party leader Matteo Salvini called for a snap election, saying his ruling coalition was unworkable. Read more: Investor confidence in Eurozone hits five-year low Yields on two-year Italian government had risen 18 basis points (0.18 percentage points) to [...]
Going for broke(rs): Student takes job hunt to Moorgate station for his big break in finance August 8, 2019 A university student trying to get his start in London’s financial district took matters into his own hands this week when he spent 11 hours stood outside Moorgate station holding a placard asking the capital’s brokers to give him a chance. “It’s not where I’m coming from, it’s where I’m going,” read Imperial College London [...]
Trio of ex-Barclays execs facing October trial over Qatar financial crisis fundraisings August 8, 2019 Three senior former Barclays executives are set to face a criminal trial in October on charges relating to their involvement in Qatar’s participation in an emergency fundraising at the height of the financial crisis. Barclays’ former investment head for the Middle East and north Africa Roger Jenkins, former wealth management boss Tom Kalaris and former [...]