Flying high: Former RBS and RSA boss Stephen Hester to be next Easyjet chairman – CityAM : CityAM August 23, 2021 City heavyweight Stephen Hester, who led RBS and insurer RSA, has been named the next chairman of budget airline Easyjet. Easyjet this morning named Hester as its director and chair designate. Hester will join the Board as a non-executive director on 1 September and then he will succeed John Barton as the airline’s chair on [...]
Is starting your own business better than sex? Yes, say half of all Londoners August 20, 2021 Self-employment has skyrocketed 93.9 per cent since 2000 and for nearly 1 in 2 Londoners, it seems that their sex life has taken a backseat as a result. Is starting up and running a business really better than sex? Well, 47 per cent of Londoners believe so as they compare the feeling of launching their own business to be better or at least as good as sex itself, according [...]
Royal London insurance moves head office to EightyFen in heart of the City August 19, 2021 Mutual life insurance company Royal London has this morning announced it has taken up 55,000 sq ft of office space at 80 Fenchurch Street for its new headquarters in the City. The largest mutual life insurance company in the UK, with assets under management of £153bn, will enjoy panoramic views across London from the top [...]
Goldman Sachs doubles managed assets to over $600bn with latest deal August 19, 2021 Goldman Sachs is set to buy Dutch insurance group NN’s asset management division for some €1.7bn – the Wall Street giant’s biggest acquisition since 2018. The deal for asset management arm NN Investment Partners (NNIP) forms part of Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon’s strategy to make the bank’s revenues less reliant on global markets and [...]
John Lewis launches investment products as it looks beyond retail for revenue August 19, 2021 John Lewis has today launched investment products for the first time ever, as the retailer ramps up its plans to find revenue streams in other sectors. Entering the investments market is, the company said in a statement, part of its longer term ambition for 40 per cent of the company’s profits to come from outside [...]
Home office hazards: Shoffices and pizza oven related fires jumped during lockdown August 18, 2021 Insurer Zurich has warned that outbuilding fires – in sheds, garages and conservatories – rose by 16 per cent last year when national lockdowns resulted in a surge in people turning their sheds into offices, or ‘shoffices’. New data revealed through freedom of information requests by insurer Zurich to UK fire authorities have shown that [...]
PwC partner accused of leaking in £63m lawsuit leaves firm August 18, 2021 Ian Green, the former PwC head of restructuring, left the firm on 30 June according to Companies House filings, following accusations by Watchstone that he leaked confidential information about the PwC client. Aquis Exchange-listed Watchstone, an insurance and technology group, have said that Green disclosed its information to a banker at Greenhill & Co in [...]
PwC partner accused of leaking in £63m lawsuit resigns – CityAM : CityAM August 18, 2021 Ian Green, the former PwC head of restructuring, left the firm on 30 June according to Companies House filings, following accusations by a PwC client that he leaked confidential information about it. Aquis Exchange-listed Watchstone, an insurance and technology group, have said that Green disclosed its information to a banker at Greenhill & Co in [...]
Insurance payouts for Covid business interruption near £1bn August 17, 2021 Insurers have paid out almost £1bn in claims to businesses that were forced shut during nationwide lockdowns, according to the latest figures released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) this week. Insurance companies paid out £637m in full settlements to policyholders with cover for business interruption since January as well as over £309m in interim payments, brining the total to £946m. But the total payments for claims could be higher still, as more than 38 [...]
Willis Towers Watson names investment head Carl Hess as next CEO August 16, 2021 Insurance giant Willis Towers Watson today named company insider Carl Hess as its next CEO and president, three weeks after the collapse of its planned $30bn (£22.9bn) mega-merger with rival Aon. Hess, who currently heads up the firm’s investment, risk and reinsurance segment, will step into current CEO John Haley’s shoes immediately upon his retirement [...]