Nearly half of UK companies have scrapped dividend payments April 9, 2020 Nearly half of UK companies have scrapped dividend payouts as the coronavirus crisis batters business. The pace of dividend cuts has accelerated since the FTSE 100 slumped to its lowest point in over 25 years last month. Link Group’s UK dividend monitor shows 45 per cent of UK companies have scrapped payments, worth £28.2bn. It [...]
British bank bosses give up bonuses amid coronavirus crisis April 8, 2020 Top bosses at British banks including Natwest and Lloyds have taken salary cuts and ditched bonuses worth millions of pounds as consumers and businesses suffer the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Natwest chief executive Alison Rose will donate a quarter of her remaining salary for 2020 — set at £2.2m per year — to a [...]
Bernie Sanders drops out of presidential race April 8, 2020 Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the Democratic presidential race, effectively handing the nomination to former Vice President Joe Biden. The Vermont senator made the decision today on a conference call with his campaign team, and he will be making a virtual statement to his followers today. Sanders was the favourite in the race after [...]
Robert Walters blames ‘savage’ coronavirus for UK profit hit April 8, 2020 Recruiter Robert Walters has bemoaned the “savage” economic impact of coronavirus as UK fee income slumped 29 per cent over the first quarter of 2020. The recruitment agency is seen as an economic bellwether and took a hit from Brexit uncertainty and the lead-up to December’s General Election in 2019. “It’s largely a hangover from [...]
Insurance: Hiscox, Aviva, RSA and Direct Line suspend dividends following Bank of England pressure April 8, 2020 Insurance companies Hiscox, RSA, Aviva and Direct Line have this morning announced the suspension of their dividends after regulatory pressure from the Bank of England. Sam Woods, deputy governor of the Bank’s Prudential Regulatory Authority wrote to chief executives of major insurers on 31 March asking them to “pay close attention to the need to [...]
Coronavirus: Car insurers set to make £1bn as claims drop 50 per cent April 7, 2020 The UK’s largest motor insurance firms are set to make £1bn from the coronavirus shutdown, as a huge decline in the number of journeys being made has seen claims drop 50 per cent for some firms. Under government regulations, car owners are required to keep their cars insured at all times, regardless of how much [...]
Cebr: UK output has plunged 30 per cent amid coronavirus April 5, 2020 UK economic output has fallen by roughly 30 per cent, according to new research, but some sectors such as manufacturing are much worse off than other areas like insurance and finance. As coronavirus containment measures cause businesses across the country to close and demand to slump, the UK economy has slowed dramatically. Economists have struggled [...]
Treasury plots ‘bailout taskforce’ to rescue firms from coronavirus collapse April 5, 2020 The Treasury is said to be preparing to take emergency stakes in companies that are at risk of collapse due to the coronavirus outbreak. Whitehall officials have approached a top City figure to assemble a so-called bailout taskforce that would pump funds into potential casualties of the pandemic in exchange for equity stakes, the Sunday [...]
US unemployment surges as coronavirus lockdown takes toll April 3, 2020 US unemployment surged in March as coronavirus sent the economy into a tailspin, official data has shown. US employers laid off 701,000 workers in March after hiring 275,000 in February, the Labor Department (DoL) said. Analysts had been expected a fall of 100,000. The figures represent an abrupt end to the US labour market’s winning [...]
Coronavirus: Eurozone economy suffers record hit in March April 3, 2020 The Eurozone economy suffered the biggest blow on record in March, survey data has shown, as coronavirus containment efforts all but stopped activity. The IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – a closely watched gauge of the health of the euro area economy – crashed to 29.7 in March from 51.6 in February. A score [...]