R3 boss: Coronavirus is exposing cracks in banking tech April 28, 2020 As banking sectors across the globe grapple with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, a Wall Street veteran suggests the crisis may expose the need for new technology. David Rutter, who had a decade-long stint at interdealer Icap and now heads up financial tech firm R3, believes issues like the lending of coronavirus loans have [...]
Recovery plans must prioritise small businesses April 28, 2020 If the UK economy is to get back on its feet as soon as possible following the extreme lockdown, there needs to be a small business-first exit strategy. While it is right that decision is led by public health concerns, for the sake of our hugely important small business population, we need to understand the [...]
Zoopla: £82bn of UK house sales on hold as transactions set to halve in 2020 April 28, 2020 Hundreds of thousands of property transactions have been put on hold as the UK housing market freezes up during the coronavirus lockdown, with house sales set to fall 50 per cent this year. Roughly 373,000 property transactions with a total value of £82bn are on hold after the government put in place strict coronavirus restrictions, [...]
Michael Gove: Brexit trade deal by 31 December ‘entirely possible’ April 27, 2020 Michael Gove has said a post-Brexit free trade deal between the UK and EU is “entirely possible” before 31 December and is “better than 2/1” odds to happen. Gove said today that the firm deadline would “concentrate minds” and would not be changed, despite the coronavirus crisis. There has been sustained calls for the 31 [...]
Private equity groups: EU state aid rules could block coronavirus loans April 27, 2020 Private equity firms are increasingly concerned that viable but highly-indebted or loss-making British firms, potentially including high-street names, will be ruled out of coronavirus business loan schemes due to European Union state aid rules. European lobbying groups representing the industry are set to write to the EU this week to try to ensure such firms [...]
Boris Johnson returns to work under pressure to ease UK coronavirus lockdown April 27, 2020 Boris Johnson faces a flurry of meetings about the UK coronavirus lockdown upon his return to Downing Street today after his own severe battle with the infection. The Prime Minister returns to work today after three weeks of fighting off a coronavirus infection that could have killed him. After confirming his positive diagnosis on Twitter [...]
UK economy will take three years to recover from coronavirus, say analysts April 27, 2020 The UK economy could take three years to return to its 2019 size after the coronavirus pandemic has passed, a new report has warned, as consumer spending and business investment plunge. The report from economics forecaster EY Item Club said UK GDP would likely shrink 6.8 per cent in 2020 and unemployment would surge to [...]
Angela Merkel seeks to impose financial transactions tax on EU countries April 26, 2020 Germany will seek to impose a financial transactions tax, minimum tax rates and an EU-wide healthcare system on member nations during its upcoming six-month presidency of the bloc. The revolving presidency of the Council of the European Union allows individual countries to set the EU’s agenda during the six months of their stint. German chancellor [...]
Progress on post-Brexit talks ‘disappointing’, says Barnier April 24, 2020 The EU’s chief negotiator has said that progress between the bloc and the UK in the post-Brexit trade talks has thus far been “disappointing”. Michel Barnier said that despite having set such a tight timeline for the talks, the UK had failed to move on a number of key issues. Speaking at a press conference [...]
Brexit trade talks: Will the deadline be extended over coronavirus? April 23, 2020 Despite coronavirus, the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost, Boris Johnson’s so-called sherpa, and his Brussels counterpart Michel Barnier recommenced trade negotiations on Monday via video conference. The week-long negotiating round is the first of three to be held over the next six weeks. The ultimate aim is to thrash out and ratify a UK-EU [...]