Bitcoin faces tighter UK regulation under money laundering plans December 4, 2017 The UK is looking to crack down on bitcoin by expanding European Union anti-money-laundering rules that force traders to disclose their identities and report suspicious activity to include cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin prices have rocketed more than 1,000 per cent this year, but despite digital currencies becoming more mainstream they are often still associated with cybercrime. The [...]
JP Morgan Cazenove widens its lead as top FTSE 100 stockbroker, but Numis retains overall crown December 4, 2017 The brokers at JP Morgan Cazenove will be entering the festive season safe in the knowledge that their firm is still the FTSE 100 favourite, according to data out this morning from Adviser Rankings. JP Morgan widened the lead ahead of its main competitor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML), which saw its FTSE 100 [...]
Carillion share price hits fresh lows: Banks were left on the sidelines while shares plummeted December 4, 2017 Carillion’s stock market valuation hit fresh lows last week, with the stricken contractor now worth little more than £70m. The firm’s travails have been well documented; massive contract write-downs and mind-boggling losses have been pounced upon by short sellers convinced the worst is yet to come. With Carillion’s shares starting the year at 236p each, [...]
Shares in this FTSE-listed business Torotrak have just plummeted 48 per cent on failing to secure a refinancing December 1, 2017 London-listed engineering business Torotrak has certainly taken a wrong turn somewhere, as its market cap was halved today upon the announcement that it had failed to secure a refinancing. Torotrak, which focuses on emissions reduction and fuel efficiency technology, said it had been “trying to secure a refinancing of the company to address its financial [...]
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 [...]