Klarna closes losses and touches monthly profit as cost-cutting drive bears fruit August 31, 2023 Buy-now pay-later giant Klarna has slashed its losses and touched profitability for the first time this year after rolling out a hefty cost-cutting programme and driving down the amount of customers defaulting on payments. In its half year report today, Klarna revealed it had closed its losses to SEK 2.115bn (£153m) from SEK 6.37bn last [...]
Ed Warner: London 2012 convinced us that Para sport was moving forward, but it isn’t August 31, 2023 There are 363 days until the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympics. Tickets go on sale on 9 October. The most expensive events are €100, a sliver over a tenth of the price of the best seats for Olympic athletics. I can guarantee there won’t be only one tenth of the enjoyment. You might [...]
FSB calls for a ‘risk-taking’ attitude from government to boost small businesses August 31, 2023 British business organisations are calling for a tech revolution and pushing the government to supercharge economic growth. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has sounded the clarion call for the government to foster a “risk-taking” attitude and give small enterprises a leg up as they stumble over the high cost of adopting new technologies. The [...]
London business confidence hits highest level since May last year August 31, 2023 Business confidence in London surged to its highest level since May last year, as firms around the country were increasingly optimistic about the UK economy. Business confidence in London rose 20 points during August to hit 52 per cent, according to the latest Lloyds Business Barometer. Some 56 per cent of firms were confident in [...]
Our angst over migration means we’re still ignoring skilled staff for UK firms August 31, 2023 The UK has offered jobs to refugees from Ukraine and Hong Kong. But many skilled refugees from Afghanistan or Syria are still treated differently, and struggle to find work, writes Elena Siniscalco
FTSE 100 close: Prudential results give London markets a boost after US jobs data August 30, 2023 London markets finished higher on Wednesday with the capital’s premier FTSE 100 index given a lift by strong results from Prudential. The FTSE 100 index climbed 0.1 per cent to close at 7,473.67 while the mid cap FTSE 250 index rose 0.5 per cent to end at 18,564.52. Prudential was among the FTSE 100’s top [...]
High street banks pull back from SME lending despite increasing demand August 30, 2023 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding it increasingly difficult to access funding from high street banks, new data out today shows. According to data from fintech firm iwoca, 84 per cent of finance brokers said high street banks were increasingly reluctant to lend to SMEs. This was seven percentage points more than the quarter [...]
Brexit to blame? Pubs lost £22m over August Bank Holiday due to staff shortages August 29, 2023 Pubs lost out on a whopping £22m over the bank holiday weekend due to staff shortages which continue to cripple the UK hospitality sector post-Brexit. While the August bank holiday led many punters to the pub to enjoy extended weekend, a new study from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) showed that staff shortages [...]
German outlook bleak as consumer sentiment falls again August 29, 2023 German consumer sentiment is expected to fall in September, due to declining income expectations and propensity to buy, a GfK institute survey showed on Tuesday. The institute’s consumer sentiment index fell to -25.5 heading into September from a slightly revised -24.6 in August, below expectations of analysts polled by Reuters of a reading of -24.3. [...]
Greenwashing & Greenbleaching – 7 key points for asset managers August 29, 2023 ESMA (the European Supervisory Market Authority) published a “Progress Report on Greenwashing” – the link to which can be found here (https://www.esma.europa.eu/document/progress-report-greenwashing). The purpose of this report is to pave the way for future legislation but also to “identify preliminary remediation actions” (i.e. to cite clear examples of greenwashing, as a warning to market participants). [...]