New ‘purpose-built’ $1bn UK clearing bank launches in London November 30, 2021 London gets its second new clearing bank in 250 years today, as The Bank of London launches in the city to approve and process cross-border payments. Founded by Anthony Watson, a former chief information officer at both Nike and Barclays, The Bank of London is taking on the four banking giants HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, [...]
Swelling costs threaten to throw UK businesses into a ‘winter freeze’ November 30, 2021 A “winter freeze” is looming over UK businesses triggered by the ongoing supply chain crisis swelling costs at a record pace, according to fresh figures published today. Shortages of key materials used by firms engineered by global logistics systems gumming up has raised prices across the board, crimping businesses’ margins. Research by the Confederation of [...]
Motorway snags unicorn status as it lines c-suite with Amazon and John Lewis leads November 29, 2021 Used car marketplace Motoway has snagged unicorn status today, after a fresh $190m funding round has it gearing up for expansion. High profile investors including Index Ventures, which backed Deliveroo, Etsy and Dropbox, as well as BMW i Ventures, Latitude and ICONIQ Growth piled into the Series C. “We’re now completing over 8,000 car sales [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile today? November 25, 2021 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every morning. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Deloitte Deloitte’s Financial Advisory practice has hired a new partner in its Financial Institutions Group (FIG) Corporate Finance M&A Group, to help offer advisory services to banking clients. Joining from investment bank Alantra after beginning his career at Lloyds [...]
Happening now in the City: Insurance giant Convex Insurance targeted over coal November 24, 2021 Convex Insurance, the London-based insurance company, is targeted this morning at the London Market Conference by environmental organisation Market Forces, putting further pressure on the insurance company to rule out underwriting the controversial Adani Carmichael coal project. Convex has not ruled out the project despite 40+ other major insurers having done so. The Adani Carmichael [...]
Mauricio Preciado-Awad CA: Making a big impact with small change November 22, 2021 This article first appeared in ICAS’ CA magazine. UK social investment has grown sixfold in a decade, thanks in part to Big Society Capital using money from dormant bank accounts. Investment Director Mauricio Preciado-Awad CA tells Kitty Finstad about the big impact of small change If you were living in the UK around the time of [...]
Willis Towers licks wounds of failed mega-merger with a board shakeup November 18, 2021 Willis Towers Watson has appointed four new directors, as the company tries to move forward after a failed mega-deal with Aon earlier this year.
‘It’s a pivotal time’ November 16, 2021 Interview with Simon Kenyon, Group Ambassador for London, Lloyds Banking Group Taking the pulse of London’s financial health is not easy: for every business that’s thriving, or at least showing ‘bouncebackability’ from the pandemic, there are others struggling to keep the wolf from the door. But the economic pulse is beating a little faster inside the [...]
Bank of England defends fossil fuel funding to Extinction Rebellion November 14, 2021 The Bank of England (BoE) reportedly tried to appease Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests earlier this year, as the climate activist group targeted City fossil fuel financing. In emails with XR members, the central bank urged that government instead has the “primary levers for driving the economy-wide transition to net-zero emissions”, The Telegraph first reported. In [...]
Supreme Court Google ruling sends shockwaves through legal community November 10, 2021 London’s legal community has been left reeling by the Supreme Court’s decision to vote down a £3bn lawsuit against Google. The action led by former Which? director Richard Lloyd, supported by the campaign group Google You Owe Us, fought to bring a “representative action” against Google for “illegally” collecting Safari browsing data through “clandestine tracking” [...]