Why the housing crisis is clobbering London businesses February 24, 2014 THE HOUSING crisis is the biggest challenge facing London. For the first time ever, it is now Londoners’ top concern. For low and middle income Londoners, home ownership is increasingly out of reach, rents consume an ever increasing percentage of their income, and homelessness is rising. But the crisis is also seriously damaging the competitiveness [...]
Metro Bank: First London – next, the rest of the UK February 23, 2014 Metro Bank’s chairman and founder tells Tim Wallace he wants to take the Southern-focused lender out to a national audience IT HAS shaken up London’s retail banking scene, with bright new branches on busy high streets, and a bold American-style service ethos. But although Metro Bank startled the market as Britain’s first lender in more [...]
Against the Grain: What Italy and France should really learn about German economic resilience February 20, 2014 IT’S EASY to forget that Germany was once seen as the Sick Man of Europe. Between 1991 and 2005, its GDP growth averaged only 1.2 per cent a year, compared to 3.3 per cent in the UK. Since then, of course, the German economy has revived dramatically. The recovery in the German cluster of economies [...]
Against the Grain: What Italy and France should really learn about German economic resilience February 19, 2014 IT’S EASY to forget that Germany was once seen as the Sick Man of Europe. Between 1991 and 2005, its GDP growth averaged only 1.2 per cent a year, compared to 3.3 per cent in the UK. Since then, of course, the German economy has revived dramatically. The recovery in the German cluster of economies [...]
Green light for Paragon to join banking market February 18, 2014 RADICAL new rules to bring more competition into the banking market paid off yesterday as Paragon Bank became the first lender to get a new licence under the system. It is only the second new licence to be awarded in more than 100 years – the first was Metro Bank in 2010. Paragon Bank will [...]
Strong Chinese loans prop up Asian markets February 17, 2014 A MAJOR boost to Chinese lending in January buoyed Asian markets yesterday, even following Japan’s disappointing fourth quarter GDP data. The Peoples’ Bank of China announced that 1.32 trillion yuan (£128.36bn) was distributed in new loans during January, the highest in over nearly four years, easily beating more bearish forecasts. The news follows better than [...]
UK asset managers can boost competitive edge with more transparency February 17, 2014 WHEN we asked asset managers and investors to name the most important issue facing the sector, the answer was overwhelmingly how clients’ funds are spent through dealing commission. The growing consensus that more can be done to ensure clients’ funds are used fairly reflects a wider cultural shift across financial services. Firms in all sectors [...]
3 reasons for the achingly slow progress on EU-US free trade deals February 17, 2014 Though a stock-taking meeting for the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) begins again today, progress is likely to be painfully sluggish. Transpacific talks have gone through 18 rounds already, not including meetings between ministers or chief negotiators. In comparison, the EU and US not yet even the third round of talks, which [...]
Competition probe for annuities February 13, 2014 THE CITY watchdog today announced a competition probe into the annuities market over fears pensioners are being ripped off by unfair sales techniques. Sixty per cent of retirees buy an annuity through their current provider, even though shopping around could boost their income by more than 10 per cent, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found. “As part [...]
Switzerland’s shock migration vote has dealt the EU a huge blow February 10, 2014 THERE are two kinds of Eurosceptics. There is the pro-market, classical liberal variety: believers in the Four Freedoms – the free movement of goods, services, capital and people – across the countries of the European Union, but who oppose everything else, including political integration, the undemocratic nature of the European construct, the EU’s myriad subsidies, [...]