The future is now: Investors spotting futuristic themes have been able to get ahead April 23, 2015 THEMATIC INVESTING Most savvy investors have a portion of their portfolio given over to emerging markets. Investors have revelled in the future potential of these economies, with their rapid pace of urbanisation and their burgeoning young populations. Whether you know it or not, investing in the future of emerging markets is a form of [...]
City Moves for 22 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 21, 2015 HFG The specialist insurance recruiter has appointed Stewart Taylor as head of business and market development. He was founder of insurance search firm Hermes People, and also previously spent 10 years at McGregor Boyall as director of its banking and capital markets division. BDO Nicole Martin has been appointed audit partner in the accountancy and [...]
Barclays U-turn on account fees: Bank will pay customers £4 a month as competition hots up April 14, 2015 Barclays will offer to pay current account customers from next week, intensifying the battle sweeping the high street since the seven-day switching service made it easier to move banks 18 months ago. The bank has been losing customers to rivals through the seven-day service, as other lenders have won clients by offering financial rewards. Barclays’ [...]
City Moves for 15 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 14, 2015 Hastings Insurance The insurance firm has announced the appointment of Richard Hoskins as its group chief financial officer. He joins from AIG, where he was chief financial officer of its global commercial insurance business and the Americas region. Hoskins has also held roles at Aviva Group. Euler Hermes UK The credit insurance firm has appointed [...]
General Election 2015: The 10 key points of Labour’s “pro-business” manifesto April 13, 2015 Labour has launched its manifesto ahead of the General Election on May 7 – and the party has chosen to go toe-to-toe with the Conservatives on the economy. Ed Miliband promised Labour was "pro-business, not pro-business as usual". Some of the policies have been formulated to directly appeal to the business community – but others [...]
PwC tells HMRC to pay up 10 years after MG Rover collapse, claiming £56m in overpaid VAT April 8, 2015 PwC is tapping HMRC up for £56m in overpaid VAT, 10 years to the day that the car giant entered administration. The financial services firm, which handled MG Rover's administration and subsequent liquidation, is claiming the taxman received excess payments on vehicles manufactured by the Midlands-based group and supplied to fleet operators “dating back a [...]
City Moves for 08 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 7, 2015 Marsh The insurance and risk management firm has appointed Sally Williams as director of risk and governance. She joins from National Australia Bank Group, where she was head of risk, London branch. Williams has also worked as group director of risk at Aviva. Legal & General Investment Management The asset management firm has announced two [...]
Tidjane Thiam earnt £11.8m in last year as Prudential’s chief executive March 31, 2015 Outgoing Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam received £11.8m in his final year at the company, the insurer revealed yesterday. The vast majority of that came from long-term incentive awards – those payouts gave him £8.3m. Combined with a salary of just over £1m, pension contributions of almost £400,000 and a bonus of £2.1m, the boss [...]
PPI complaints to banks fall but card anger rises March 30, 2015 PAYMENT protection insurance (PPI) complaints are dropping away, and now account for fewer than half of all complaints to banks, the City watchdog said yesterday. Banks received 2.18m complaints from July to December 2014, a fall of 14 per cent on the same period of 2013. Of those, 1.06m were still PPI complaints – making [...]
Accounts with benefits: The perks of premium bank accounts March 26, 2015 Nothing says “badge of success” quite like a private bank account. Historically, offering them to customers has been the preserve of the private bank, but in recent years, growing numbers of high street institutions have begun to offer packaged – or premium – accounts to customers with substantial savings and (more often than not) six-figure [...]