How nine City experts reacted to Philip Hammond’s NIC u-turn March 15, 2017 It's official: Philip Hammond has bowed to criticism and scrapped his controversial plans to hike National Insurance Contributions for the self-employed. Reactions from have varied, from confusion to outright glee. Here's how nine of the City's most important organisations reacted. Read more: Hammond's U-turn on National Insurance hike plans – read his letter in full [...]
Now fintech startup Revolut is getting into loans March 14, 2017 Fintech startup Revolut has partnered with a peer-to-peer lender to offer loans to users, its newest product in addition to a current account and money transfers. With Lending Works, it will offer loans of up to £5,000 at a rate of 9.9 per cent APR over 12 months. The credit facility is instant, if approved, with [...]
Innovation never stops: What’s next for the tech startups in Bird & Bird’s Digital Innovators showcase pushing boundaries? March 14, 2017 When Bird & Bird and City A.M. sought to unearth, and then celebrate, the most innovative digital companies shaking up the worlds of finance, health, education, media and security, we knew the collective 20 companies we found were an outstanding demonstration of the UK’s leadership in cutting edge technology. Now, just four months on, the visionary founders [...]
Budget 2017: The full text of chancellor Philip Hammond’s speech March 8, 2017 Philip Hammond has delivered his first – and last – Spring Budget. Headline announcements included more cash for social care and punishing new rules for the self-employed – plus some vague comments on business rates. Read more: City A.M.'s TL;DR version of the Spring 2017 Budget Here's what he said: Mr Deputy Speaker, I report [...]
Spring Budget 2017 at-a-glance guide: All of chancellor Philip Hammond’s big announcements you need to know March 8, 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond has delivered his first (and last, thanks to a shift around in dates) spring Budget speech. But, as not everybody has the time to go back and listen to his words of wisdom in full, here's an at-a-glance breakdown of the biggest announcements you need to know: Economics, public spending and politics [...]
Tax free dividend allowance reduced from £5,000 to £2,000 two years after George Osborne scrapped the dividend tax credit March 8, 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond has slashed the tax free dividend allowance from £5,000 to £2,000. The Treasury said the allowance was being shrunk so as to "reduce the tax differential between the self-employed and employed, and those working through a company, to raise revenue to invest in public services". It will "ensure that support for investors is [...]
Here’s how we build P2P firms that actually service the poor March 2, 2017 Is payday lender Wonga the only alternative finance business that actually addressed credit demand among poor people? A regulatory crackdown on the industry has pushed the most disadvantaged in this country towards hire purchase firms, where they “buy” something on credit, sell it on almost immediately to obtain ready cash, then end up paying back [...]
Moneysupermarket announces share buyback after growing profits February 28, 2017 Moneysupermarket Group is launching a £40m share buyback after reporting increased revenue and profit for the year to 31 December 2016. The figures Group revenue rose 12 per cent to £316.4m from £281.7m. Operating profit was up 13 per cent to £91.1m from £80.5m, while profit after tax grew by 16 per cent to hit [...]
Tandem Bank’s chief executive Ricky Knox talks sarongs, dumb pipes, ornithology and why Facebook is scared of banking February 27, 2017 "Would you have called Amazon? I didn’t! We all thought that was just a fad – it was a bookseller. An online bookseller with that valuation? But the internet creates these giants – and it’s not just one or two of them. "Look at music – EMI is basically dead. Google – a little bulls*** [...]
These are the seven deadly sins of the workplace February 17, 2017 Perhaps it was inevitable that someone would try to rebrand the seven deadly sins. After all, it’s 1,700 years since monk Evagrius Ponticus came up with the eight evil thoughts generally credited with the concept. These were whittled down to seven by Pope Gregory I in AD590 – vainglory was the one to go. Now [...]