Charter Court Financial Services is set to announce plans for £500m float in London | City A.M. September 3, 2017 Buy-to-let mortgage lender Charter Court Financial Services is expected to reveal a £500m initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Market, according to reports. The owner of Exact and Precise mortgage brands could announce plans for a float as soon as this week with a market value of about £500m, Mark Kleinman at Sky [...]
Barclays, HSBC, Credit Suisse and more banks join UBS’s digital currency project Utility Settlement Coin (USC) August 31, 2017 Barclays, HSBC and Credit Suisse are among six major banks joining an ambitious project led by UBS to create a digital currency for financial services. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, MUFG and State Street will also join in with efforts to launch the Utility Settlement Coin (USC), alongside Santander, Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon and Icap. [...]
The number of startups run by older entrepreneurs has surged over the past decade August 21, 2017 Forget the slew of young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs – your Evan Spiegels and Mark Zuckerbergs. For the number of businesses run by the over-55s has surged over the past decade, according to new research from Barclays Business. The number of firms run by the over-55s has risen 63 per cent in the past 10 years, [...]
Behind the hype: Machine learning in investment management August 11, 2017 In a recent article, I discussed some of the significant progress being made in machine learning–enabled artificial intelligence and some of its potential drawbacks as well as the challenges it poses for regulators. Now, I want to bring your attention to a very interesting Barclays report that looks at the deployment of quantitative fund strategies, [...]
Retailers back increase in contactless payment limit as transactions jump August 1, 2017 Retailers would back raising the contactless spending limit as the ultra-fast system for processing payments has pushed up transactions. Research released by Barclaycard today has found three-quarters of retailers who have introduced contactless payments into shops have experienced an uplift in transactions of 30 per cent on average. Read more: Is bPay a flop? Barclays' [...]
Barclays chief executive Jes Staley quizzed by regulators investigating him over attempts to ID whistleblower August 1, 2017 Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has been formally questioned by regulators over his attempts to unmask a whistleblower. The bank announced in April that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) were probing Staley after he tried to identify the author of a letter raising concerns about a senior employee in 2016. [...]
Embracing a brilliant new era of close UK-South Korea relations July 27, 2017 Anyone who has walked through the graves at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan will never forget the huge sacrifices made by British forces in the Korean War. Yet, whether because of insufficient media coverage or post-World War II fatigue, many veterans returned to a country which did not acknowledge their service, and the Korean [...]
Edinburgh’s entrepreneurial ecosystem encouraging start-up activity July 26, 2017 The secret of a great recipe lies in having the best local ingredients to work with. The same lesson applies when building an entrepreneurial ecosystem – to be truly successful, cities must evolve their own unique recipe based on the best local ingredients. A talented workforce, public sector and academic support, a culture of innovation, [...]
Sage Group share price dips after $850m deal to acquire US software firm Intacct July 26, 2017 Shares in Sage dipped more than four per cent in morning trading on Wednesday morning after it splashed $850m (£653m) on US financial software company Intacct. The deal is the FTSE 100 firm’s biggest ever acquisition and will be funded via cash and share options. “The acquisition of Intacct supports our ambitions for accelerating growth [...]
UK IPO: Bakkavor – which supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose meals – gears up for London float worth up to £2bn July 23, 2017 Bakkavor, supplier of supermarkets including Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, is readying itself for a stock market float that could value it at up to £2bn. The pizza and ready meal supplier appointed Rothschild to examine its options in January, and has now brought in advisers from HSBC and Morgan Stanley to lead the IPO later [...]