FTSE 100 heads for biggest weekly gain in six weeks May 27, 2016 Britain's FTSE 100 was on course for its biggest weekly gain in six weeks today. The commodity heavy blue-chip index was up 1.7 per cent on the week, after oil prices touched $50 per barrel yesterday, and bank shares also made gains. It was down 0.1 per cent to 6,260.3 points in late afternoon trading. The [...]
Tech and engineering firms are flocking to a new tech hub in Silverstone May 27, 2016 Look out Silicon Roundabout, there's another tech hub out for the crown. Silverstone, the home of British motor racing, has been flooded recently with a raft of high-tech engineering businesses – and is now being branded as the Silverstone Technology Cluster. Property investment and development business MEPC – which is behind the development of Silverstone Park – has identified over [...]
Santander’s using blockchain right now May 26, 2016 Santander is the latest bank to experiment with blockchain technology, applying it to international payments with the promise of making the process quicker. It claims to be the first bank in the UK to use blockchain in this way, trialling it in an iPhone app used by staff that reduces the time it takes to transfer cash by [...]
Should you start hoarding gold? Some say China’s gold ambitions mean you should keep some stashed at home May 26, 2016 China’s decision to buy its second gold storage vault in London last week was another step towards total dominance of the market. The vault is in a secret location and was bought by Chinese state-owned bank ICBC Standard Bank from Barclays. It could store $90bn of gold at today’s prices, and follows the purchase of [...]
Coca-Cola chief executive tops international black, Asian, and minority ethnic executive power list May 26, 2016 The boss of The Coca-Cola Company, Muhtar Kent, has topped a list of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) bosses from around the US, UK and Ireland. The ranking, put together by executive search firm Audeliss, placed Manjit Wolstenholme, chair of Provident Financial second and Albert Cheng, chief operations officer at Amazon Studios in third. Its release follows a similar one from the House of Lords [...]
Ex-Barclays boss Rich Ricci: Fintech will eat banks’ lunch May 26, 2016 Rich Ricci, the former head of Barclays investment banking and right-hand man of Bob Diamond, has warned that fintech startups will snatch market share from established financial institutions and change the landscape of banking. Efforts of big banks to innovate will continue to be thwarted by their archaic technology as they face increasing competition from [...]
Get ready to meet your new co-worker…in seven weeks’ time May 25, 2016 Good news: if you've been using the empty desk next to you as extra storage space for piles of paperwork, a study out today suggests you have a while before you'll need to tidy up. A survey of financial services executives by recruiter Robert Half discovered that it takes an average of seven weeks to [...]
At the close: FTSE 100 shaping up for an impressive week May 25, 2016 We're just over half way through but UK markets seem to have a spring in their step this week as they closed even higher today on the back of "buying frezny". The FTSE 100 popped up another 0.7 per cent to 6,262.85 – the bluechip's highest close since the end of April. Banks once again led the [...]
Samsung’s Apple and Android Pay rival will launch in Europe next week May 25, 2016 Samsung is heading into battle with Apple and Google in the war for mobile tap and pay users by focusing on extras such as membership and loyalty schemes as it launches Samsung Pay in Europe for the first time. The Korean smartphone maker is facing stiff competition from Apple Pay which launched last year and Google’s Android Pay [...]
Traders gonna trade, trade, trade: Taylor Swift is the biggest guilty pleasure for bankers, according to new research May 25, 2016 When it comes to guilty pleasures, City boys can't get enough of Taylor Swift. Does Barclays chairman John McFarlane sing along to Dear John behind closed doors? Perhaps. PwC's Andrew Sentance may be a secret rock god, but bankers are all about the pop charts: Swift's number one hit Shake it Off has been named the secret song [...]