The 100 City people you need to follow on Twitter this year, day four: Economists January 8, 2015 The financial crisis may have been a tough time for most of the City, but one group did pretty well out of it. There’s no doubt about it: economics has got sexy, as the popularity of everything from Thomas Piketty’s missive on inequality to “economics made easy” books such as The Undercover Economist, shows. Whether [...]
UK car sales hit 10-year high in 2014: High consumer confidence and boost to industry January 7, 2015 The number of new cars sold in the UK reached a 10-year high in 2014, new figures show. Over the whole of last year 2,476,435 new cars were registered, according to figures released yesterday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). It was the fourth-best year of all time regarding the [...]
City Moves for 06 January 2015 | Who’s switching jobs January 5, 2015 Stanhope Capital The investment office has announced the appointment of Charles Mesquita as a senior director in its charity team. He has over 25 years’ investment experience, and has previously held positions at Newton Investment Management and Rensburg Sheppards (now Investec). Simmons & Simmons Matthew Pitman has been promoted to partner at the law firm. Based [...]
EU VAT rule change could hike the cost of ebooks January 1, 2015 After weeks of deep discounts and mega-sales courtesy of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day, shoppers may be a bit miffed to find out that at the start of the new year they may have to pay more for their ebooks. As a result of a change in EU tax rules, digital products will be [...]
City Moves for 23 December 2014 | Who’s switching jobs December 22, 2014 KPMG The professional services firm has announced the promotion of Jane McCormick (pictured), head of tax and pensions at KPMG in the UK, to head of tax for its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMA) region. She will also become a member of its EMA board and senior tax partner for KPMG in the UK. In [...]
KPMG staff put the pedal to the metal for McLaren pit-stop race December 18, 2014 McLaren’s F1 pit stop teams have a record of changing all four tyres on their car in two seconds – yes two. We doubt anyone in the City could do a better job but that’s not stopping KPMG from having a serious go. Following the announcement of KPMG’s alliance with McLaren Group, [...]
Lord Myners’ report could finally ease pressure on Vince Cable over Royal Mail December 17, 2014 Vince Cable knew what he was letting himself in for when he asked Lord Myners to oversee a review of the British government’s privatisations. So the business secretary will, I suspect, be relieved that the independent-minded former City minister has concluded that taxpayers were less short-changed from Royal Mail’s initial public offering (IPO) [...]
Upstairs downstairs: KPMG bosses Simon Collins and Jane McCormick pop on aprons and serve up for staff December 17, 2014 Bosses over at KPMG were taken down a few pegs yesterday. UK chairman and senior partner Simon Collins (left) donned a hat and a “trainee” badge to serve up skinny cappuccinos and hazelnut lattes to staff. Meanwhile head of tax and pensions Jane McCormick (right) was peddling cupcakes to people at their desks. No careers [...]
City Moves for 17 December 2014 | Who’s switching jobs December 16, 2014 Savills Richard Saunders has been appointed associate director in the real estate adviser’s City office. He has over 10 years’ experience in dilapidations and joins from Malcolm Hollis. Saunders’s previous clients include property companies, investors and corporate occupiers. Cluff Natural Resources Andrew Nunn has been appointed chief operating officer at the natural resources investing company. [...]
Bank of England stress test results: Lenders braced to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on IT improvements December 15, 2014 Britain's biggest banks are set to spend the next year pushing through major revamps of their IT systems, as stress tests have revealed problems in their ability to gather data on their own loan books. The lenders have been built up over decades from mergers of smaller banks, leaving them with a range of outdated [...]