BT scraps dividend as Covid-19 and full-fibre rollout hit profit May 7, 2020 BT today scrapped its dividend as the coronavirus crisis and full-fibre broadband costs weighed on profit. The telecoms giant said it had taken the “exceptionally difficult” decision to suspend the payout until 2022, when it will be reduced 50 per cent to 7.7p per share. It came as BT posted a two per cent dip [...]
Europe’s Crypto funding gap May 5, 2020 The European blockchain ecosystem is increasingly critically undercapitalised if it is to maintain the hard fought global leadership role established over the last decade. Despite London, Switzerland and Berlin when combined being home to roughly a third of the worlds blockchain startups, it has just 22% of the investment compared with the US and China [...]
Investment firms deploying new tech are the most trusted among investors May 4, 2020 Investment firms that are deploying new technology are the most trusted by both institutional and retail investors, according to new research. Nearly two-thirds of institutional investors and nearly half of retail investors with an adviser trust their investment firm because of an increased use of technology. There is growing interest in the use of artificial [...]
Alphabet earnings: Five key takeaways as Covid-19 hits Google April 29, 2020 Shares in Google parent company Alphabet were up almost eight per cent in after-hours trading last night after the tech giant reported its first-quarter earnings. The closely-watched report was the first in a string of major US tech results set to be published this week, and give a key indication of how the coronavirus crisis [...]
Is Skynet coming? April 28, 2020 This week I saw yet another headline ‘Skynet is near – Google scientists create Artificial Intelligence that evolves on its own” intimating that some sort of humanity destroying AI system is not only an inevitability but on the cusp of reality. Icons such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have long proclaimed the end of [...]
Five ways to retain your wealth management clients in 2020 April 28, 2020 The global wealth management industry is being buffeted by demographic changes among investors, as well as technological advancements such as the arrival of robo-advisers. Recent research commissioned by Bank of America on millennials’ spending priorities in the USA – with millennials defined as those aged 24 to 41 – found that about 25% of those who [...]
British spies urged to use artificial intelligence to fight security threats April 27, 2020 British spooks will need to use artificial intelligence (AI) to fight a range of threats to national security, according to a report published today. Intelligence agencies have been urged to use the technology to detect and block cyber attacks, analyse video and audio evidence, and automate administrative tasks. However, AI is unlikely to predict upcoming [...]
We must understand China to manage the threat of this rising superpower April 24, 2020 Tom Tugendhat MP is Chair of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee As the world gets to grips with Covid-19, it is increasingly clear that this unprecedented crisis will have a huge impact on almost all aspects of our lives. And while some changes may take years to fully appreciate, others are already staring us in [...]
Coronavirus: Healthtech needs a route to market April 23, 2020 In just a few weeks the healthtech sector has made 10 years of progress, underlining why this week’s decision by the Chancellor to create a fund to support our innovative tech startups is necessary. Most entrepreneurs position themselves as problem solvers but in healthtech we are seeing hundreds of tiny companies, often working with world-leading [...]
Coronavirus: Our digital shift has implications for blockchain April 22, 2020 Of the many lessons being learned during the current Covid-19 pandemic, an important one is that many industries are capable of going digital in an emergency. The rapid digital transition has been more agile where blockchain was already in place. Blockchain’s lasting legacy will be its role in the continuation of positive digital change post-crisis. [...]