Let the good times roll: EY Item Club forecasts strong growth for UK financial services February 15, 2016 The financial services industry can expect decent growth over the next few years, a group of forecasters have said today. Mortgage lending, business borrowing and consumer credit are all set to grow at healthy rates over the coming years, as the UK economy shrugs off recent severe stock market declines. However, the EY Item Club said [...]
Don’t dump upfront pensions tax relief: Why a Pensions Isa won’t drive people to save February 12, 2016 A pensions revolution may truly be upon us. Hats off then to City A.M. whose reporting has led the way in publicising the Treasury’s activities in advance of potential changes to how Britain incentivises pension saving. The lurid comparison with Gordon Brown and his 1997 abolition of dividend tax credits made by former pensions minister Steve [...]
BBVA shakes up fintech venture fund, spinning out into independent Propel Ventures, doubling fund and setting up London office February 11, 2016 Spanish bank BBVA, which recently ploughed £45m into UK digital challenger bank Atom, has more than doubled its war chest for investing in fintech startups and will set up shop in London in a shake up of its venture investment strategy. The bank's $100m (£69m) fintech venture fund, which invests in European and US startups, will be upped to $250m [...]
SocGen leads European banks lower at the close as rout resumes on Deutsche, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS share prices and Credit Suisse hits 27 year lows February 11, 2016 Well that didn’t last long. Europe’s bank shares closed down this evening, led by French bank Société Générale after it announced earlier it may struggle to meet its profitability targets this year. The bank, whose share price slumped over 13 per cent in early trading but managed to scale back loses to end the day down just over 12 [...]
Why P2P lending is getting ever more robust – and why Adair Turner is wrong about the industry February 11, 2016 Former Financial Services Authority chairman Adair Turner took a potshot at the P2P lending industry yesterday, stating that “the losses which will emerge from peer-to-peer lending over the next five to 10 years will make the bankers look like lending geniuses”. More specifically, he expressed his concern at the credit checking P2P and debt-base crowdfunding platforms [...]
City Moves for 10 February 2016 | Who’s switching jobs February 10, 2016 Peel Hunt Corporate broking, trading and advisory house Peel Hunt has appointed Amy Walker and Michal Cabadaj as equity research analysts in its healthcare and life sciences team. Amy has joined from Morgan Stanley where she worked for over five years, most recently as a director of EU pharmaceuticals research. Prior to this, she led [...]
No pressure, Janet: Spotlight falls on the Fed as US central bank chief Yellen faces questions from Congress February 10, 2016 The financial world’s attention will fall on Janet Yellen today as the Federal Reserve chief faces a grilling by Congress, in the middle of a week of chaos on global trading floors. Shares throughout the world tumbled for a third straight session yesterday, while European banks lost another four per cent of their value. Financial [...]
Setting bank data free with open APIs is just the start for consumer choice February 9, 2016 Today’s report from the UK Open Banking Working Group has recommended the creation of an Open Banking Standard that will make it possible for banking data to be shared and used securely. But what does this actually mean? In layman’s terms, it means data that banks hold on their customer base – balances, transaction history [...]
Former pensions minister Steve Webb warns chancellor George Osborne: Don’t become the ghost of Gordon Brown February 5, 2016 Former pensions minister Steve Webb will today urge chancellor George Osborne to abandon proposals for a controversial change to the pensions system. Webb, who was pensions minister in the coalition and is now director of policy at Royal London, will warn Osborne not to repeat the mistakes of his Labour predecessor Gordon Brown by fiddling [...]
Editor’s Interview: Christian May meets Labour’s mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan February 4, 2016 Clement Attlee dominates one wall in the meeting room of the Khan campaign HQ. I’m reading the plaque when Labour’s mayoral candidate bursts into the room. “Funny story,” he says, “you’ll like this.” He offers a handshake and points to the portrait at the same time. “The only reason that’s here is because the party can’t [...]