HMRC to receive powers to enforce disclosure of assets September 19, 2020 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will be given new powers that will allow it to force financial institutions to provide information about people’s assets. The firms will be required to pass on customer information if served with a “financial institution notice” by HMRC under new measures proposed in the next finance bill. It will mean [...]
How DeFi promises to transform financial services September 15, 2020 Thus far, 2020 hasn’t been the best of years for many. But for decentralised finance, or DeFi, 2020 has been a period of stratospheric growth, with the total value locked in rising from under $1bn, to just under $8bn today. Although still very much in its infancy, the popular ecosystem is rapidly transforming the face [...]
Coronavirus: 700,000 jobs lost since March September 15, 2020 Almost 700,000 workers have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic began in March, according to the latest government statistics. The HM Revenue and Customs and Office for National Statistics data showed early indicators for August suggest that the number of employees in the UK on payrolls was down around 695,000 compared with March. The [...]
DeFi: Borrowing and Lending Crypto Deserves Scrutiny and Caution September 4, 2020 Crypto lending and borrowing in booming but the important questions are still the same: who are the lenders, and who are the borrowers? Why do they engage in these transactions? What forces shape the market, and how do the players involved react to those forces? The bigger story when it comes to crypto-backed crypto lending [...]
It’s time for the UK to set its financial services sector up for success September 3, 2020 With the Brexit transition period drawing to a close, the United Kingdom has a unique opportunity for legislative and regulatory reform. For our financial services sector, the Treasury’s review of the regulatory framework presents a fantastic chance to set the UK up for another decade of global leadership, in an international market that is fast-changing [...]
How dare the government turn on the self-employed now September 3, 2020 Twice this week, reports have emerged that the Treasury is considering drastic tax hikes on the self-employed: first, increases in corporation tax (hitting the UK’s 715,000 sole directors of limited companies), and second, the equalisation of self-employed and employee National Insurance Contributions. The justification? The support the self-employed got during coronavirus. Given how many people [...]
Government urges firms to hire under-25s through free ‘kickstart’ scheme September 2, 2020 UK companies can offer six-month work placements to young people – with wages paid entirely by the government – under the “kickstart” scheme launched today. The government urged businesses to sign up and “take advantage of the enormous pool of potential out there”. It warned that young people “could otherwise be left behind as a [...]
Science and tech has proved a damp squib in the fight against Covid-19 September 2, 2020 Few of us alive today have lived through a year so tumultuous, historic, and (yes, that word again) unprecedented as 2020. We are seeing the biggest health pandemic since 1918’s Spanish Flu; the biggest threat to the world economy since 1929’s Great Crash; and the biggest civil unrest in the US since 1967 — all [...]
Unfinished Business September 1, 2020 Back in 2015, I co-founded a challenger Bank called Starling with a super smart group of people (plus me) with different talents – mine was technology – and with a common drive, determination and goal ‘to change financial services for the better’. I think we went a long way in achieving that aim, helping people [...]
Covid-19 could be the largest insured loss in history. How can the insurance industry adapt? September 1, 2020 Covid-19 has us all living through a live, catastrophic event. It is dramatic but makes the non-life insurance world a fascinating place to be. There will be significant insured losses from Covid-19 with obvious examples of the Olympics being postponed, Wimbledon and other sporting events being cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of travel insurance claims [...]