Brexit: David Frost and Michel Barnier to have Downing Street dinner July 7, 2020 The UK’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost will have dinner with his EU counterpart Michel Barnier at 10 Downing Street tonight in the lead-up to the next round of trade talks. A Downing Street spokesperson said the two men would meet tonight in an informal setting to discuss some of the negotiations’ most difficult sticking [...]
WFH: Is it the death knell for offices? July 7, 2020 Some real estate investors believe the successful working from home experiment during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices. We think this is premature. One of the more mundane aspects of the coronavirus has been the sudden evacuation of offices and mass adoption of home working. In the US it [...]
Equity fund outflows hit all-time high as investors cash in after market rally July 7, 2020 Outflows from UK equity funds hit an all-time high in June as investors cashed in on their profits following the stock market rally. Investors bought heavily into the markets in April and early May, as prices remained depressed, before banking on gains in June. Last month saw the highest outflows from UK equity funds, outstripping [...]
Magnitsky Act: Dominic Raab unveils first foreign citizens facing visa restrictions July 6, 2020 Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has unveiled the first 49 foreign citizens facing sanctions for alleged human rights abuses under the UK’s new Magnitsky Act. Speaking in the Commons today, the foreign secretary said the UK was taking action against the “thugs of despots and henchmen of dictators” and those trying to launder their “blood-stained ill-gotten [...]
Watchdog orders Big Four to separate auditing units by 2024 July 6, 2020 The Big Four accounting firms — PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY — must separate their audit units from the rest of their businesses by 2024, the audit watchdog said this morning. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is asking the companies to agree to operational separation by June 2024 to ensure their audits “do not rely [...]
‘Serious concerns’ raised over government’s export credit agency July 6, 2020 The government’s export credit agency could be “cutting corners” as it races to finance the post-coronavirus and post-Brexit trade drive, raising “serious concerns” about the UK’s future trading relations, according to a new report. A report released today by anti-corruption campaign group Spotlight on Corruption found that UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit [...]
UK car sales sink 35 per cent in June despite post-lockdown restart July 6, 2020 UK new car sales plunged a third in June despite the easing of lockdown measures, new data showed today, after worse falls in April and May. New car registrations sank 34.9 per cent in June year on year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). But that marked what the body called [...]
Banks push Britain and EU to sort out financial market access July 6, 2020 Britain and the European Union must make progress on post-Brexit financial market access as the coronavirus pandemic will make it even harder to cope with potential disruptions if no deal is reached, a banking lobby group said today. Continued uncertainty over the pair’s future relationship combined with the economic downturn caused by Covid-19 could “aggravate [...]
Johnson prepares to scrap Huawei from UK 5G network July 5, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to draw up plans this month to start phasing out Huawei from the UK’s 5G infrastructure in a major U-turn following pressure from security agencies. A security review from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a branch of GCHQ, is understood to have revised assurances that risks posed by [...]
European politicians reject banking regulator candidate for a second time July 3, 2020 A panel of European Union politicians has rejected the candidate for executive director of the bloc’s banking regulator for the second time, in a bid to attract more women to top EU jobs. The European Parliament’s economic affairs committee voted by 24 to 23 to recommend that the full parliament rejects Francois-Louis Michaud as the [...]