Interserve share price dives after being landed with £40m bill from accountants PwC EY and consultants Oliver Wyman FTI Consulting April 30, 2018 Under-fire accountants and consultants are to net almost £40m in fees as troubled outsourcer Interserve pulls itself back from the brink. Big Four bean counters such as PwC and EY as well as management consultants FTI Consulting and Oliver Wyman were paid £13.9m during 2017 with a further £25m to be paid in 2018, it [...]
Ready to regulate: Why crypto and the City need each other April 30, 2018 The financial services sector is rife with inefficiency. The global financial system moves trillions every day and serves billions of people in the process, yet legacy technology and siloed systems make change immensely slow, if not impossible. The majority of core banking systems are over 30 years old, and almost half of financial intermediaries suffer [...]
The City reacts to sharp UK GDP slowdown saying the chances of a May interest rate rise are slim to none April 27, 2018 The big news of this morning with the UK economy growing more slowly than expected during the first quarter sent the pound falling as attention turned to the prospects of a May rate rise. GDP grew by 0.1 per cent during the first three months of the year, down from 0.4 per cent in the [...]
Outdated recruitment attitudes are blocking the best young digital talent from getting jobs April 19, 2018 The digital skills gap in the UK is well documented, with employers struggling to fill 43 per cent of STEM vacancies, according to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, and the Federation of Small Businesses reporting that 22 per cent of business owners think a lack of digital skills is holding them back. But [...]
Inflation falls to lowest in a year: Here’s what economists think the Bank of England will do April 18, 2018 Inflation fell in March in a further boost to British households who have suffered a year of real wage falls, but the Bank of England’s job may have become trickier, according to economists. Consumer price inflation (CPI) fell by 0.2 percentage points in March to hit 2.7 per cent. The Bank targets two per cent [...]
International Monetary Fund’s Christine Lagarde warns of blockchain disruption to clearing and settlement industries April 16, 2018 The influential head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today warned that the blockchain technology underpinning cryptocurrencies threatens to cut a swathe through the financial infrastructure industries. In a blog posted today on the IMF’s website, Christine Lagarde highlighted smart contracts, which carry out transactions automatically without intervention from an external party, as one of [...]
ONS Survey: UK construction continues to tumble as manufacturing slows April 11, 2018 Construction and manufacturing across the UK have continued to fall, according to analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The February ONS figures show that construction fell 1.6 per cent month-on-month, and was down three per cent compared to February last year. Read more: Snow no: Construction activity shrinks in March after unusually bad [...]
After a bumpy end to 2017 what is the outlook for the London listing market in 2018? April 9, 2018 Nearly £3bn worth of initial public offerings (IPOs) were pulled in London at the end of last year. Deals that were announced but then failed to make it to market include debt collector Cabot Credit Management, professional services business TMF Group and phone mast company Arqiva. In the six months to December companies that had [...]
Fear not – a flurry of inbound mergers and acquisitions is good news for post-Brexit Britain April 9, 2018 Good news for bankers! Dealmaking this year has jumped to levels close to a pre-credit-crunch peak reached more than a decade ago. That’s according to figures published today by accountancy giant EY. Mergers and acquisitions involving UK parties totalled a whopping $120bn (£85bn) in the first quarter of 2018, eclipsing the $51bn recorded in the [...]
London financial services account for slowdown of productivity growth as UK labour productivity rises by 0.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017 April 6, 2018 London’s financial industry and several regional manufacturing industries account for a large chunk of the recent slowdown in UK productivity growth, new analysis from the Office for National Statistics said today. The capital’s financial services industry – and several regional manufacturing industries – made a considerably reduced contribution to productivity growth in the five years [...]