The US OCC clears path for banks to custody crypto July 23, 2020 As the great State of Wyoming leads the way in the USA for crypto and blockchain friendly banking (thanks to the tireless efforts of Caitlin Long, Tyler Lindholm and Jared Olsen) and with Texas saddling up to follow suit, huge news came out of the US as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [...]
High standards will keep London competitive, incoming FCA chief says July 22, 2020 Maintaining high regulatory standards rather than having a “competitiveness” mandate is the best way to preserve the City of London’s status as a dynamic financial centre, the Financial Conduct Authority’s incoming chief said today. Britain will no longer have to comply with European Union rules after December when transition arrangements that followed Brexit in January [...]
Walmart revives talks on sale of Asda stake July 20, 2020 Walmart has revived talks to sell a stake in Asda after pausing plans to focus on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The US giant, which is the largest retailer in the world, said it had restarted discussions with potential buyers after it was forced to temporarily abandon the move. “Walmart and Asda have restarted [...]
COVID-19: How stock exchanges can help us #BuildBackBetter July 14, 2020 Mark Oliphant, Head of Communications at The International Stock Exchange Group, explores how agile public markets can help the economic and social recovery from COVID-19. Stock exchanges have been somewhat out of fashion in recent years and this seemed to be a trend reinforced earlier this year during the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global [...]
Third of UK audits fail accounting watchdog’s quality tests July 14, 2020 Britain’s accounting watchdog today said that a third of audits by the UK’s seven main accounting firms failed quality tests this year, amping up pressure for widescale reform in the sector. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said 29 of 88 audits carried out by Deloitte, PWC, EY, KPMG, BDO, Grant Thornton and Mazars this year [...]
Businesses must find their purpose, or risk becoming the next corporate scandal July 14, 2020 In the midst of a pandemic, the corporate scandals keep coming. The most recent is Boohoo, a previously admired brand in the fashion industry that has been accused of sourcing clothes from a Leicester factory where workers were paid as little as £3.50 an hour. For many in the fashion industry, the darker side of [...]
European Commission approves €3.4bn KLM bailout July 13, 2020 The European Commission has approved a €3.4bn (£3.1bn) bailout of the Dutch wing of Air France-KLM, despite objections from Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. The rescue package, which was agreed last month, will see the Dutch government guarantee a €2.4bn loan from a consortium of banks, as well as providing €1bn in loans itself. When the [...]
Ai: The Competitive Advantage July 7, 2020 In recent years, it seems most discussions centered around technology and business innovation inevitably end up debating the future potential of Artificial Intelligence. While the longer term upside is seemingly limitless, and there is much debate about what the future of what AI might look like, what’s less understood is how AI works today – [...]
Scammers can create fake Facebook and Google ads ‘within hours’ July 6, 2020 Lax controls on Google and Facebook enable scammers to create and post adverts for fake businesses within just a few hours, according to an investigation. Harry Rose, editor of Which magazine, said it was “worryingly easy for fraudsters to create adverts promoting scams for fake products and services”. Which created two linked fake companies – [...]
Competition watchdog pressures government to take on tech giants July 1, 2020 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said existing UK laws are not suitable for effective regulation, calling on the government to overhaul its structure so it can better tackle tech market dominance. The watchdog said it needs more support to govern the behaviour of “major platforms funded by digital advertising, like Google and Facebook”, [...]