14 years of investment returns: history’s lesson for investors November 30, 2017 The stockmarket has provided the best returns among the major asset classes over the last 14 years. But the total profits belie wild fluctuations year by year. Such volatility can cause problems for those who need to draw down money from their investments at certain points of their lives. A sudden drop in the stock [...]
A stroke of genius: How to get a loan by securing against art November 30, 2017 The world was stunned earlier this month when a 500-year-old Leonardo da Vinci painting smashed the world record by fetching $450m at auction. This figure might sound absurd, but understanding the multitude of factors that determine the value of art will remain a mystery to many of us. “Art is very personal,” says Freya [...]
Mind the skills gap: A plan to future-proof the UK workforce November 30, 2017 How do we close the skills gap in this country? At the recent World Skills competition and conference in Abu Dhabi, I learnt that this is not just a UK problem, but also one faced by countries across the world. Addressing this imbalance sits front and centre of everything this government is trying to achieve [...]
With the rise of fintech, banks have more on their plate than Brexit November 29, 2017 Britain’s biggest banks nervously opened their latest stress test results yesterday. They all passed, although Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland remain the laggards – seeing the Bank of England after class. Most hearteningly, the BoE gave Britain’s major lenders an A grade for their resilience even in the face of a “disorderly Brexit”. However, [...]
“There will be pain”: Bank of England’s Mark Carney warns against no deal Brexit November 28, 2017 Bank of England governor Mark Carney today warned of “pain” for the British economy in the case of a hard Brexit, with no transition or longer-term trade deal secured between the UK and the EU on trade. Speaking at the Bank’s stress tests of the financial system, Carney said UK banks would be able to [...]
Bank of England stress tests: This is how the lenders HSBC, RBS, Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Standard Chartered reacted November 28, 2017 The Bank of England unveiled the results of its latest round of stress tests today, and presented a fairly upbeat outlook on the state of the market. Barclays and RBS were the only lenders to fall below the Bank’s systemic reference points, and in the main, the BoE said banks would incur losses of £50bn [...]
Uber has been behaving like a tech teenager – it’s time to grow up November 27, 2017 When Dara Khosrowshahi was ushered in as the new broom at Uber in August, he can’t have realised the full extent of the mess he had been tasked with clearing up. Damaging claims of sexual harassment that came to light in February were superseded in September by the dramatic decision to strip Uber of its [...]
Rio Tinto caves in to shareholder pressure and scraps appointment of Tory chief Sir Mick Davis November 26, 2017 Mining giant Rio Tinto has scrapped plans to appoint the chief exec of the Conservative party as its new chairman, according to reports. Frontrunner Sir Mick Davis is “no longer in the running” to replace Jan du Plessis after a shareholder revolt. City sources told Sky News over the weekend several institutional investors had drawn [...]
The Financial Conduct Authority says banks will back Libor until 2021 November 24, 2017 Libor will continue with investment banks’ backing until it is phased out in 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority announced today. Today, the FCA said it had been working with banks to finalise an agreement for them to remain on the panels they currently submit to until 2021 in order to ensure a more orderly transition. [...]
Chinese banks march up rankings of world’s most important banks as Citi and BNP Paribas drop November 21, 2017 Chinese banks have jumped up international regulators’ rankings of the banks which are most crucial to the global financial system as Citigroup and BNP Paribas fell down the list. Both Bank of China and China Construction Bank rose into the second “bucket” on a list of the global systemically important banks published today by the [...]