Five ways to retain your wealth management clients in 2020 April 28, 2020 The global wealth management industry is being buffeted by demographic changes among investors, as well as technological advancements such as the arrival of robo-advisers. Recent research commissioned by Bank of America on millennials’ spending priorities in the USA – with millennials defined as those aged 24 to 41 – found that about 25% of those who [...]
CMA receives 16,000 consumer complaints over coronavirus refunds April 24, 2020 Around four fifths of the complaints received by the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) coronavirus taskforce have been related to refunds and cancellations. As of the beginning of the week, the CMA has received a total of 21,000 complaints related to the disease. According to the competition watchdog, 14,000 of these complaints refer to the [...]
CMA clears £6.2bn Just Eat Takeaway merger April 23, 2020 Just Eat and Takeaway.com received the green light to complete their £6.2bn merger today. UK watchdog t he Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found the tie-up would not lessen competition in the food delivery space. The CMA said it was “satsified there are no competition concerns”. Takeaway.com fought off a rival bid from Dutch rival [...]
Arqiva’s £2bn telecoms takeover cleared by competition watchdog April 22, 2020 A £2bn takeover of Arqiva’s telecoms infrastructure division by Spanish rival Cellnex has been cleared by the competition watchdog. The merger, which agreed in October, will make Cellnex the largest independent operator of mobile masts in the UK, adding roughly 7,400 sites to its portfolio. The deal will also give the Spanish firm rights to [...]
Good vs. bad active fund management: three indicators April 21, 2020 Do you ever wonder whether your active fund is worth the management and performance fees you charge? Would passive investments have yielded similar or better outcomes for your clients? If you haven’t asked yourself these questions, you can be sure your clients have asked themselves. And they will continue to, measuring what you deliver with [...]
Metro Bank to return £11.4m to customers after breaching unarranged overdraft charge rules April 20, 2020 Metro Bank is to return £11.4m to customers after it breached a legal order by failing to send texts warning people about unarranged overdraft charges. The Competition and Markets Authorty (CMA) said the bank breached Part 6 of the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017 which requires banks to warn [...]
Pessimism & reluctance April 17, 2020 A moment of nostalgia for sterling and relief for the euro. Sterling was not unduly worried this week, having a surprisingly successful week. Over the eight-day week it strengthened by an average of 0.5%, losing out only to the puzzlingly mismatched Australian dollar and Japanese yen. It added one euro cent and one and one [...]
CMA provisionally clears Amazon’s £442m Deliveroo investment over coronavirus April 17, 2020 A UK watchdog today provisionally cleared Amazon’s massive £442m investment into Deliveroo due to the risk the food delivery firm faces from coronavirus. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) called the situation “wholly unprecedented” but said the cash was “realistically only available from Amazon”. Deliveroo has seen a significant decline in revenues from the UK [...]
Competition watchdog revokes ban on Takeway.com and Just Eat integration April 16, 2020 Just Eat Takeway has been given the go-ahead to integrate the two food delivery businesses after the UK’s competition watchdog revoked an order to keep the firms separate. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued an initial enforcement order in January, which prevented the two food delivery firms from integrating their businesses. Amsterdam-based Takeaway.com bought [...]
Coronavirus: Calls for price controls dismissed as ‘economically illiterate’ April 10, 2020 Economists have hit back at Which? after the consumer watchdog said that the government should enforce price controls on certain items to prevent so-called “price gouging” during the coronavirus pandemic. The calls came after the consumer group said it had found that items such as handwash, cleaning products, and baby formula were selling at vastly [...]