Virgin Money announces two new appointments to senior executive team, with Peter Bole to join as chief financial officer and Hugh Chater to take on the role of chief commercial officer January 12, 2016 Challenger bank Virgin Money has appointed former Tesco Bank finance chief Peter Bole as its new chief financial officer. In a statement today, the bank said he will join in 2017. Read more: Virgin Money replaces KPMG with PwC as auditors Glen Moreno, chairman of Virgin Money, said Bole is "an accomplished professional with first-class strategic financial management experience. "I [...]
UK retail sales: Christmas brings little cheer to retailers January 12, 2016 Christmas brought little cheer to UK retailers in December as hopes of a boost to sales from higher consumer confidence fell flat. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG’s latest monthly index shows like-for-like retail sales rose by 0.1 per cent from December 2014, when they had decreased 0.4 per cent. Total sales were up one [...]
Pay growth falls to two-year low despite jobs rise January 8, 2016 Pay growth has slowed to its lowest rate in over two years, new survey figures show this morning. The slowdown comes despite an increase in job vacancies in December, according to the data compiled by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and financial services firm KPMG. The survey’s pay gauge slid to a score of 58.7 [...]
2015 was a record year for new car registrations – but VW has lost January 7, 2016 Everyone's a petrolhead now. The year 2015 was a record year for new car registrations, new figures have shown, with 2.63m new vehicles registered during the year – up 6.3 per cent from last year. That was boosted by December – the biggest on record – during which 180,077 new cars were registered, up 8.4 per [...]
City Moves for 7 January 2016 | Who’s switching jobs January 7, 2016 Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has announced that John Goldfinch, a London-based member of the firm’s alternative investments practice group, has been elected to the firm’s partnership effective 1 January. John has a broad structured finance, securitisation and transactional derivatives practice covering the full spectrum of products. He joined Milbank [...]
City A.M.’s journalists take a look at what 2016 has in store for the world of finance and business January 4, 2016 BANKING Strengthening outlook despite more regulatory bumps ahead Bank of England governor Mark Carney may have declared the banking crisis officially over at the end of last year, but 2016 looks to be far from a challenge-free year for Britain’s biggest banks. To be sure, all seven of the UK’s leading lenders passed the Bank’s [...]
KPMG: Commercial banks and high net worth individuals face bigger threat from hackers targeting specific victims in 2016 January 3, 2016 With high-profile corporate attacks and tightened legislation, cybersecurity soared higher on boardroom agendas last year, but experts are predicting the threat will continue to grow worse in 2016, as hackers increasingly target specific victims. High net worth individuals, commercial banks and corporate treasuries will be especially exposed to threat from organised crime groups this year, [...]
From stamp duty to capital gains: The buy-to-let market has been hit by 14 tax changes in four years December 30, 2015 Thought buying a home was complicated? Spare a thought for landlords, who, it turns out, have been hit by 14 changes to the way they're taxed in the past four years, according to KPMG. Yep: from that 15 per cent hike to stamp duty for properties held within a corporate envelope, way back in the mists [...]
KPMG: UK tax changes will slow down buy-to-let market December 29, 2015 The buy-to-let market will slow down next year due to a series of tax changes, accountancy giant KPMG has said. The changes, including a three per cent hike to stamp duty on buy-to-let homes, to be introduced in April, will put off buyers. KPMG’s Dermot Kallinan said: “It will be interesting to see whether buy-to-let investors opt to [...]
RSA Insurance and Aviva share prices hit as experts warn Storm Eva could knock 0.25 percentage points off UK growth December 29, 2015 As people in Yorkshire and Lancashire spent a second day recovering from once-in-a-generation flooding, experts have warned the damaged wreaked by Storm Eva could hit the UK's GDP growth. Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS, suggested the impact could be felt both this year and next. "Looking at the extent of the [...]