Ping An proposal to break up HSBC gains momentum as small investors back plan August 3, 2022 HSBC investors are ramping up calls for the banking giant to break up as they side with Chinese insurance company Ping An. Pressure on the bank to shave off its Asian business into a separate company increased after a meeting with HSBC executives and Hong Kong investors yesterday, as small shareholders backed the proposal by [...]
Hiscox shares plunge after insurer slumps to loss of £88m August 3, 2022 Insurance giant Hiscox slumped to a loss of $107m (£88m) in the first half of the year after a steep decline in the value of its investment portfolio.
Aviva chief Amanda Blanc joins BP as non-executive director August 2, 2022 British energy major BP today said it has recruited Aviva chief executive and insurance sector veteran Amanda Blanc to sit on its board of directors. The appointment is set to see Blanc sit on BP’s board as a non-executive director, whilst continuing in her current job as chief executive of British insurance giant Aviva. In [...]
The financial adviser value proposition: the five components August 2, 2022 What can we do for our clients that they can’t do on their own? What can make us better at managing their money than they are? These aren’t always easy questions to answer as a financial adviser. But modesty aside, we need to be able to explain to potential clients how we can help them [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Breaking the Odessa deadlock August 2, 2022 Yesterday the first container ship filled with grain left Ukraine after months of impasse. It was a huge breakthrough, enabled by a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. The cargo ship was loaded with 26,000 tonnes of corn. It left Odessa, a Black Sea port that’s been blocked since the beginning of the [...]
Direct Line Insurance reports lower profit amid rising inflation and uncertain economic conditions August 2, 2022 Direct Line Insurance Group reported lower profits for the first half of 2022 as rising inflation and a gloomy market outlook impacted performance. The insurance company had a 47 per cent drop in operating profit to £195.5m from the first half of 2021 as it dealt with “challenging” market conditions and tighter FCA regulations. Profit [...]
Claims globalisation has ‘had its heyday’ are premature, Lloyd’s chief executive says August 2, 2022 Claims the dual shocks of Covid and the war in Ukraine have halted the “all conquering forces of globalisation” are “premature,” Lloyd’s of London chief executive John Neal told City A.M. In an op-ed in this newspaper, the insurance chief said that while we will “rightly see a degree of retreat and retrenchment” in [...]
Even as we turn inwards to shore up security, globalisation is still alive August 2, 2022 Ten years ago, it would have been hard to imagine an end to the all-conquering forces of globalisation. Our world has been on a one-way ticket to integration since the mid-20th century – and it has shown little sign of return. Yet with the dual shocks of Covid-19 and the invasion of Ukraine revealing the [...]
IFS: Sunak’s pledged Income Tax cut smaller than his tax rises as chancellor August 1, 2022 Rishi Sunak’s newly unveiled promise to cut the basic rate of Income Tax from 20p to 16p by the end of the decade is smaller than the tax rises he made as chancellor, according to an influential economic think tank. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) today also said the tax plans of Sunak and [...]
HSBC hits back at Ping An calls to carve out Asia business August 1, 2022 HSBC today hit back at intense pressure from its biggest shareholder to spin out its Asia business. The chief of Britain’s largest lender, Noel Quinn, said HSBC’s “strength as a well connected, global institution is the main reason our wholesale clients choose to bank with us”. “We are determined to capitalise on the advantages our [...]