Grexit: Not reaching a deal would be “insane”, says National Bank of Greece boss Louka Katseli June 21, 2015 The boss of Greece’s biggest bank has said it would be “insane” for the country not to reach a deal at emergency talks due to be held tomorrow between the Greek government and European leaders. Louka Katseli, the chair of the National Bank of Greece (BNG), told the BBC "I think sanity will prevail and [...]
Ladies who don’t lunch: Pretty Sagoo talks science, stress and Solvency II June 18, 2015 The whole pension thing was completely by accident,” says Pretty Sagoo, explaining how she ended up in banking, working with insurance and pension fund clients. In the language of the industry, her career has revolved around structuring and pricing deals, de-risking, swaps, hedges and the like. But Pretty doesn’t do jargon. “It just winds [...]
The great adventure: How to navigate the world of equity crowdfunding as an investor June 18, 2015 Debt and equity crowdfunding have the potential to revolutionise small business funding. In 2012, The Breedon Report predicted a funding gap of £59bn for UK companies by 2016, if nothing was done. The government’s response was to make funds available via alternative finance providers and to enhance the benefits to equity investors via the Enterprise [...]
Forget the doom-mongers: Investing in infrastructure is as safe as it sounds June 15, 2015 Received wisdom says that infrastructure is a safe and boring haven for long-term investors looking for yield in a low interest rate environment. Recently, however, the asset class has come under attack for being more risky than the low-yielding government bonds for which it is touted as an alternative home for investors’ cash. Even the [...]
George Osborne should prioritise taxpayer value over a rapid RBS privatisation June 9, 2015 Almost seven years on from the £46bn taxpayer bailout of RBS, it may seem perverse to ask “why the rush?” when it comes to selling our 79 per cent stake in the still-ailing bank. But this is precisely the question that must be posed if, as anticipated, George Osborne sets out at the Mansion House [...]
City Moves for 08 June 2015 | Who’s switching jobs June 7, 2015 Dalriada Trustees The independent trustees firm has appointed Richard Favier as a trustee representative. He is a former head of restructuring and insolvency at the Pension Protection Fund, and left the PPF to set up his own consultancy in 2013. Favier is a member of the International Insolvency Institute. Arthur J Gallagher The international division [...]
Eight men convicted over “very substantial” fraud after huge FCA investigation Operation Cotton June 1, 2015 Eight men have been convicted for their role in running a scam fund in which 110 investors lost more than £4.3m between them. The men operated three property investment companies through which investors were pressured into buying land “at a vastly inflated price, on the false promise of a substantial profit”. The salesmen lied [...]
Keydata owner pledges to fight FCA after £75m fine May 26, 2015 The bitter wrangle between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Keydata reached boiling point yesterday as both sides promised legal action to decide the long-running dispute. The financial regulator announced it is seeking record fines against three former managers of the investment service, claiming the company mis-sold complex products known as “death bonds” to consumers. [...]
Invoice delays top 107 days with construction firms taking the hit May 25, 2015 Businesses in construction and real estate were forced to wait over 15 weeks for invoice payments last year, despite the ongoing economic recovery. The new report, published today by the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA), comes after recent research by insolvency trade body R3 revealed £41.5bn in late payments was owed to UK businesses [...]
Could Greece ever pay off all its debt? Tomorrow’s IMF repayment is just the tip of the iceberg May 11, 2015 Eurozone ministers have once again gathered in Brussels to try and negotiate a deal between Greece and its creditors, but a big question mark hangs over whether the struggling nation could realistically remain in the Euro. Tomorrow, it must fork out a €750m (£544m) loan repayment for the IMF, but this is just the start [...]