Fifth of workers paid less than recommended living wage October 30, 2016 A fifth (22 per cent) of workers in Britain earn less than the amount deemed to be a living wage, according to research out today. The study, carried out by Markit on behalf of KPMG, discovered that some 5.6m workers are paid less than the £8.25 per hour, or the £9.40 per hour in London, recommended by the [...]
What do today’s GDP figures mean for UK interest rates? October 27, 2016 The Bank of England looks set to delay another bout of emergency stimulus next week after this morning’s strong GDP figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the UK grew by a robust 0.5 per cent this morning, defying already-revised expectations of a 0.3 per cent gain in the first three months after the [...]
Leading the charge: How to invest in the nascent, but lucrative, electric power storage sector October 27, 2016 One word captures the holy grail for the energy industry: storage. A Carbon Trust report from March found that better energy storage could save £2.4bn a year by 2030 in the UK. If certain regulatory hurdles are overcome, this could rise to £7bn a year. New developments and innovations are coming to market all the [...]
City Moves for 26 October 2016 | Who’s switching jobs October 26, 2016 EY EY has appointed Darra Singh to lead its UK government and public sector practice. EY’s UK government and public sector team advises local authorities, government departments, the NHS and other public bodies on how they can improve their services and deliver greater value for money. Darra has led EY’s Local and Public Services team, which focuses on [...]
Big Four rival? No, we’re old friends, insists ex-Deloitte boss as he launches Cogital – a new firm with big ambitions October 24, 2016 In August there was plenty of noise around the announcement that the former boss of accounting giant Deloitte, John Connolly, was starting a new bean-counting business, Cogital. The question was whether the project, which was innovatively backed by private equity house HgCapital, was the latest attempt to break the stranglehold of the Big Four? If anyone might be able to do it, then [...]
Robots, AI and digital disruption are coming to the hedge fund industry October 20, 2016 The robots are coming. And the hedge fund industry appears to be accepting it. “There’s a very strong business case for replacing humans with algorithms in a lot of areas of the business,” said one respondent in a survey of more than 100 hedge fund leaders and executives. Some 58 per cent of those interviewed [...]
Football asks bookies to help boost the integrity of the game October 20, 2016 Football’s global governing body has teamed-up with one of Europe’s largest online bookmakers in an attempt to better safeguard the integrity of the sport. Unibet has signed a co-operation agreement with a subsidiary of Fifa called Early Warning System (EWS), under which the gambling firm will “exchange information with EWS and will co-operate on efforts to improve [...]
Experts react to dropping of Osborne’s flagship secondary annuity market October 19, 2016 Yesterday's announcement to scrap George Osborne's plans to create a secondary annuity market was unsurprising to many. According to some experts the writing was on the wall as soon as the process was delayed until April 2017. Nevertheless, there was a lot of noise from analysts and experts. Read more: Government bins plans for secondary [...]
City Moves for 18 October 2016 | Who’s switching jobs October 18, 2016 Saffery Champness Accountancy firm Saffery Champness has recruited Dermot Callinan as a partner in its Harrogate office. He joins from KPMG, where he recently served as head of the UK private client advisory team. Dermot is a specialist in domestic and international personal taxation and his clients include wealthy individuals (both UK and non-UK domiciled), [...]
Nick Clegg attacked for claiming Brexit will cause food prices to rise October 18, 2016 Nick Clegg faced a furious backlash yesterday evening as he was rounded on for claiming food prices would jump after the UK leaves the EU. As a new report reveals the creeping cost of the EU customs union and inflation figures due this morning are set to show price rises running at their highest level [...]