FCA wants customers to shop around for the best bank interest rates and have revealed who gives the best returns on cash December 1, 2016 With interest rates at rock bottom levels we've all become accustomed to the fact we shouldn't expect much of a return from our bank accounts. And today, the UK's financial watchdog named and shamed the banks paying the lowest interest rates on cash savings accounts. Read more: City watchdog warns of asset management "market failure" [...]
City Moves for 1 December 2016 | Who’s switching jobs December 1, 2016 NEON Neon has appointed Geoff Riddell as its new non-executive chairman. Geoff brings with him over three decades of experience in the international and London insurance markets. He is currently chairman of Pool Re, having joined its board in 2015. He previously held several senior managerial roles at Zurich, where he was chief executive and [...]
Edinburgh at the heart of the global revolution in digital healthcare driven by science fiction November 28, 2016 From the work of HG Wells to Arthur C Clarke, science fiction visionaries have predicted all manner of technological advances. Just look at the 2002 cyberpunk thriller, Minority Report. Facial recognition, personalised advertising, predictive crime fighting, gesture control, driverless cars – sound familiar? Yet some technologies have remained tantalisingly beyond our reach…until now. As Star [...]
Ladbrokes Coral could be in line to table a £2bn bid for Australian betting company Tabcorp November 27, 2016 Ladbrokes Coral Group could be in line to launch a bid for Australian betting company Tabcorp, in a deal worth over £2bn. Advisers for the bid have been hired, according to reports in the Mail on Sunday. Ladbrokes Coral Group declined to comment. Tabcorp, which reported a market capitalisation of AU$3.8 (around £2.3bn) in its [...]
Compare the (annuity) market: Financial watchdog wants customers to be offered more choice November 25, 2016 The UK's financial watchdog will force annuity providers to tell customers to shop around after it found that 80 per cent of customers would get a better dealing by doing so. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today revealed its own Black Friday push with plans for an "annuity comparator" to help people find out if there [...]
FCA head of strategy and competition warns of asset management “market failure” November 24, 2016 The financial watchdog’s director of strategy has branded competition within the asset management industry “a market failure”, after carrying out an interim report into its workings. Speaking at the Tax Incentivised Savings Association’s (TISA) annual conference, Chris Woolard of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said: “We are for the first time proposing to use our powers [...]
Big Six beware: The government will look more closely at the UK’s energy market, chancellor Philip Hammond said in today’s Autumn Statement November 23, 2016 The government will “not be afraid to intervene” in the UK’s retail energy market if there is evidence of market failure, chancellor Philip Hammond said yesterday. “We will look carefully in the coming months at… key markets, including the retail energy market, to make sure they are functioning fairly for all consumers,” Hammond said in the [...]
Five of the Big Six energy firms have hiked their cheapest fixed-rate tariffs since September, according to uSwitch November 23, 2016 Five of the UK’s Big Six energy suppliers have hiked the price of their cheapest fixed-rate tariffs since September, according to data from uSwitch. On average, the UK’s major energy companies have increased their rates by an average of £129, around 16 per cent, driven by a rise in wholesale prices. The Big Six firms consist [...]
Chancellor Hammond must focus on the quality of infrastructure spending, not its quantity November 22, 2016 Keynes is back, or so it seems. Both left and right wing movements across the West are calling for greater government borrowing to finance infrastructure projects. In the US, Donald Trump is proposing to invest $500bn. In the UK, Labour’s John McDonnell wants an even more lavish £500bn programme, equivalent to around a quarter of [...]
Now is the time for the government to intervene on energy prices and override the Big Six firms November 22, 2016 This winter it is imperative that something is done to fix our broken energy market. Seven out of 10 households are still on the highest priced deals, paying some £300 more than they should – and too many of these are the most vulnerable in our society. The Competition and Markets Authority investigation report, published [...]