Wigan Athletic football club enters administration amid ‘significant impact’ of coronavirus pandemic July 1, 2020 Wigan Athletic has entered administration following the “significant impact” of the coronavirus pandemic on the football club’s finances. Paul Stanley, Gerald Krasner and Dean Watson from Begbies Traynor have been appointed as joint administrators, the Championship team said in a statement. Krasner said: “Our immediate objectives are to ensure the club completes all its fixtures [...]
Wirecard offices raided by Munich prosecutors over missing €1.9bn July 1, 2020 Wirecard offices in Germany and two locations in Austria have been raided by German prosecutors investigating the missing €1.9bn from its accounts. A spokesperson for the Munich authority said 12 prosecutors and 33 police officers are conducting searches, according to Bloomberg reports. In June, police searched Wirecard’s offices after prosecutors launched an investigation into former [...]
Hammerson collects just 16 per cent of third-quarter UK rent July 1, 2020 Retail property giant Hammerson said it had received only 16 per cent of the rents it is owed in the UK so far this quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic weighs heavily on the sector. As of 29 June, the shopping centre operator said it had collected 73 per cent of UK rents for the first [...]
UK to negotiate financial services trade deal with Switzerland July 1, 2020 The UK and Switzerland have pledged to negotiate a financial services trade agreement to enable cross-border market access after the Brexit transition period ends. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and his Swiss counterpart Ueli Maurer last night said they wanted to reach an agreement that would enable cross-border market access for wholesale financial services relating to insurance, [...]
City of London Corporation criticised for awarding above-inflation pay rises during coronavirus crisis June 30, 2020 A London think tank has slammed the City of London Corporation for giving staff a pay rise above inflation levels during the coronavirus crisis. The Corporation recently confirmed that all its staff would receive a 2.25 per cent yearly pay rise from 2020 to 2023 as well as an additional 5 per cent annual increase [...]
Netflix to spend $100m on racial equality initiatives June 30, 2020 Netflix has said it intends to set aside approximately two per cent of its cash reserves for initiatives focused on supporting Black communities in the US, following widespread racial equality protests worldwide. It will start with an initial tranche of $35m, $25m of which will go into a new fund called the Black Economic Development [...]
World reserve currencies: Is the US Dollars’ days numbered? June 30, 2020 “Every dog has its day” is an expression believed to have come from 405 BC when a Greek playwright, Euripides, was mauled and killed by a pack of dogs. An analogy to this tale could be the US Dollar. Is the end nigh? Has the mighty Greenback ‘had its day’? Having been on the boards [...]
Your Fiat is worthless. Here’s why. June 30, 2020 The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners will be adding an additional US$2.1 Billion to its next Report to the Nations when its published. The Wirecard fraud is an illustration of only one of an army of termites that is ceaselessly eating away at the foundation of the global financial system. The allegation that EY, Wirecard’s [...]
Confession of an ESG sceptic: How I learned to stop worrying and love ESG June 30, 2020 For a long time, it would be fair to say I have been brutally sceptical about Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investment. However, the Covid-19 crisis has turned ESG from a trendy investment fashion to something that matters. My scepticism began with the fact that ESG was an unbalanced concept. Too many people focus only [...]
Lords urge government to take immediate action against online misinformation June 29, 2020 Ministers have been urged to beef up regulation of digital and social media to stub out a “pandemic of misinformation and disinformation” that is destroying public trust and leveraging power to big tech companies. A new report by the Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee, chaired by Labour peer and film director David Puttnam, proposes [...]