Science and tech has proved a damp squib in the fight against Covid-19 September 2, 2020 Few of us alive today have lived through a year so tumultuous, historic, and (yes, that word again) unprecedented as 2020. We are seeing the biggest health pandemic since 1918’s Spanish Flu; the biggest threat to the world economy since 1929’s Great Crash; and the biggest civil unrest in the US since 1967 — all [...]
Decentralised Finance aka “DeFi” – A Bigger Bang September 1, 2020 In 2008 the financial world changed when Bitcoin was released into the wild and started the decentralised financial (“DeFi”) revolution which is now gathering pace. This was a Big Bang event and this new DeFi universe expanded quickly, initially there were just clones of Bitcoin, one project was very different from Bitcoin. That project is [...]
Unfinished Business September 1, 2020 Back in 2015, I co-founded a challenger Bank called Starling with a super smart group of people (plus me) with different talents – mine was technology – and with a common drive, determination and goal ‘to change financial services for the better’. I think we went a long way in achieving that aim, helping people [...]
Climate protesters target Lloyd’s of London over fossil fuels insurance September 1, 2020 Returning Lloyd’s of London employees have been met with protesters who are demanding the insurer ditch its fossil fuels insurance to protect the climate. Campaign group Insure Our Future launched its campaign outside Lloyd’s of London office this morning as the insurer reopened its underwriting hall. Protesters are criticising Lloyd’s for failing to take “meaningful [...]
Saga shares jump on proposed £150m equity raise backed by former boss September 1, 2020 Shares in over-50s insurance and travel business Saga rose today after it confirmed plans to raise £150m via an equity placing backed by its former chief executive. The company said Sir Roger De Haan – its former chief executive and son of the company’s founder – was planning on investing £100m in the company. De [...]
How might stocks react to a Biden win? September 1, 2020 Our analysis suggests such an assumption would be premature. It’s not just Covid-19 and the economic slump it has caused that are on investors’ minds. They’re also beginning to worry about the risks surrounding the 2020 US presidential election. The latest polls show that the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is poised to win and the [...]
Covid-19 could be the largest insured loss in history. How can the insurance industry adapt? September 1, 2020 Covid-19 has us all living through a live, catastrophic event. It is dramatic but makes the non-life insurance world a fascinating place to be. There will be significant insured losses from Covid-19 with obvious examples of the Olympics being postponed, Wimbledon and other sporting events being cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of travel insurance claims [...]
Former Saga chief to return and invest £100m as part of equity raise plans August 30, 2020 Saga, the over-50s travel and insurance specialist, will welcome back former chief executive and chairman Roger de Haan as part of plans to raise £150m in fresh capital. De Haan sold Saga for £1.3bn in 2004 to private equity group Charterhouse. He will inject up to £100m into the company as part of the equity [...]
Could AI help Rishi Sunak revive the UK economy? August 29, 2020 This was once meant to be the year the government balanced the books, a literal pay off for years of tight purse strings under George Osborne’s austerity programme. Instead, 2020 has seen government debt balloon to over £2 trillion. The coronavirus pandemic has meant UK spending has rocketed far beyond any previous peacetime records, leaving [...]
Bitcoin is a game of musical chairs – and the music is stopping August 27, 2020 This headline might be the single most bullish news story for Bitcoin this year: “MicroStrategy® (Nasdaq: MSTR), the largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence company, announced that it has adopted Bitcoin as their Primary Reserve asset, purchasing 21,454 bitcoins for $250 million.” What it means is that 0.1% of all seats in this game have just [...]