London remains Europe’s major global finance centre despite Brexit hit March 17, 2021 London has held on to the second spot in a respected international study of financial centres, despite the double whammy of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. London sits behind only New York and remains Europe’s only major global financial centre, remaining a number of spots ahead of Frankfurt and Zurich. But Asian competitors Shanghai, Hong [...]
Apple hits back at App Store competition probe with UK jobs claim March 15, 2021 Apple today said its App Store supports 330,000 jobs in the UK as it hit back against a probe into claims it treats app developers unfairly. Earlier this month the Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into whether Apple imposes unfair or anti-competitive terms on developers after it received a number of complaints. The [...]
Tecent, Baidu and SoftBank fined in China for monopolistic behaviour in fintech crackdown March 12, 2021 China’s market regulator said today it has fined 12 companies $77,000 each for flouting anti-monopoly rules. Concerning ten deals in particular, companies including Tencent Holdings, Baidu Inc, Softbank and a ByteDance-backed firm, were fined for behaviour that caused market concentration, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said. The companies’ actions did not completely exclude [...]
DLT may not be the silver bullet, but it’s worth a shot March 10, 2021 Lord Holmes of Richmond MBE delivers the third installment of his five-piece analysis of the government's Financial Services Bill.
UK regulators unveil ‘joined-up’ approach ahead of Big Tech crackdown March 10, 2021 Three major UK watchdogs have outlined their “joined-up” approach to digital regulation this morning as authorities prepare to crack down on Big Tech. The Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DCRF), which includes Ofcom, the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), today unveiled its first annual plan for co-ordinating new regulation across online [...]
Lawyers know best: Is it time law firms left the LLP behind? March 8, 2021 Recent legislative changes have paved the way for new, alternative structures in law firms, a sector that was previously dominated by traditional partnerships and LLPs – limited liability partnerships. Alternative business structures (ABSs) – which allow non-lawyers to have a financial stake in a firm – have grown in popularity throughout the 2010s, and for [...]
£54bn pandemic export hit: UK losing market share in US, Germany and China March 8, 2021 The UK’s goods exports slumped by £54bn in 2020 and Britain lost market share to its main competitors as Covid-19 hammered global trade, according to new research published this morning. The findings, from Aston University’s Lloyd’s Banking Group Centre for Business Prosperity, showed that Britain suffered a 14.7 per cent drop in goods exports, one of [...]
Apple’s new privacy features may finally trigger a more transparent tech ecosystem March 6, 2021 A new feature in Apple’s operating system has received relatively little attention in the wider media recently, yet it is set to kick start a new era of transparency in the tech industry and hopefully instil more respect for consumer and enterprise privacy. With the launch of iOS 14, Apple introduced a privacy information section [...]
Apple facing UK competition probe over app store dominance March 4, 2021 Apple is facing a competition probe in the UK over claims the way it treats app developers is “unfair and uncompetitive”. The iPhone maker has been locked in a long-running dispute with app makers including Epic Games, the company behind hit video game Fortnite, over the cut it takes through the App Store and on [...]
Spac-tacular: The City welcomes overhaul of stock market listings March 3, 2021 The US phenomenon of Spac listings could soon make its way to the City after a government-backed report called for widespread reform in the stock market. Lord Jonathan Hill’s report into London’s listing requirements called for regulators to allow blank-cheque vehicles to list in the capital as well as to ease other listing restrictions. It [...]