Downing Street defends Zac Goldsmith peerage and cabinet role December 20, 2019 No10 has defended the decision to appoint ousted Tory MP Zac Goldsmith to the House of Lords. Goldsmith lost his seat in Richmond Park to the Liberal Democrats in last week’s general election but has been made a peer in order to keep hold of his role as environment minister. Read more: Brexit bill: MPs [...]
What does the Conservatives’ victory mean for the UK economy and markets? December 20, 2019 The large majority for Boris Johnson’s Conservative party sees the pound and UK shares react positively, as investors welcome greater clarity on the policy backdrop. The pound climbs against other major currencies and stock markets gain as the scale of the Conservative win removes policy uncertainty. Within UK equities, companies whose operations focus on the [...]
FCA head Andrew Bailey confirmed as next Bank of England governor December 20, 2019 Andrew Bailey has been named as the new Bank of England (BoE) governor by chancellor Sajid Javid. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) boss will be responsible for steering the world’s fifth largest economy through Brexit and a troubled global macroeconomic climate. Read more: Bank of England refers hedge fund eavesdropping to regulator Announcing Bailey’s appointment, [...]
Why Davos matters in the millennial world December 20, 2019 Davos. Even the word conjures up images of Alpine glamour, exclusivity, high society and power. This week we learned that Boris Johnson has banned his ministers from attending the 2020 World Economic Forum in the Swiss town, Downing Street stressing that the new government is focusing on “delivering for the people, not champagne with billionaires”. [...]
Brexit bill: MPs to vote on Boris Johnson’s deal in second reading December 20, 2019 MPs will today vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill just more than a month before 31 January deadline. The withdrawal bill was first introduced to the House of Commons in October and will have its second reading today. Read more: CBI welcomes Prime Minister’s Brexit trade deal deadline MPs will have a chance to debate [...]
DEBATE: Will we see as much seismic political change in 2020 as we did this year? December 20, 2019 Will we see as much seismic political change in 2020 as we did this year? Nicholas Mazzei, a corporate social responsibility adviser, says YES. Despite the vast amount of news we’ve consumed on Brexit and British politics since the EU referendum, very little has actually happened policy-wise. Do not expect more of this in 2020. [...]
What does the next decade have in store for UK fintech? December 20, 2019 A decade ago, the term “fintech” had barely been coined, and the financial services world referred to more staid terms like “financial technology”. High-growth startups focusing on the space were few and far between, and very few VCs had fintech on their investment radar. In parallel, the ecosystem was slowly being introduced to innovative startups [...]
Facebook’s transfer of EU citizen data to US legal, says EU court adviser December 19, 2019 Tools used by hundreds of thousands of companies to transfer EU citizens’ data abroad are legal, an adviser to Europe’s top court has ruled, marking a major win for Facebook in a long-running court case. Austrian privacy campaigner and lawyer Max Schrems had challenged Facebook over its use of standard contractual clauses to move electronic [...]
Bank of England holds interest rate at 0.75 per cent December 19, 2019 The Bank of England has decided to hold interest rates at 0.75 per cent in its last meeting of 2019 as it warned there was little chance of significant economic growth this quarter. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-2 in favour of maintaining the rate, as it did at its previous meeting in [...]
London’s commercial property market bounces back in fourth quarter December 19, 2019 Investment in London’s commercial property market rebounded in the fourth quarter as the capital’s risk profile began to improve, strengthened by Boris Johnson securing a majority in last week’s General Election. Investment jumped 15 per cent compared to the previous quarter, rising to almost £2.8bn, according to preliminary figures. Read more: Fintech boom drives central [...]