Sajid Javid weighing up tax raid on high earners February 8, 2020 Sajid Javid is considering a tax raid on higher earners in his March budgets to help fund Boris Johnson’s plan to “level up” the economy. The chancellor is said to be committed to making the tax system “fair and efficient”. Insiders have told the Financial Times, Javid is weighing up reforms that would hit the [...]
Admiral foresees higher profit on motor claims February 7, 2020 UK insurer Admiral has predicted it will post higher-than-expected profit in its 2019 full-year results, after a change to personal injury insurance rules led to higher reserve releases and commission revenue. Admiral said in a trading update it expects to post a group profit before tax for 2019 in the range of £510m to £540m, [...]
Prudential considering taking full control of joint venture in China February 6, 2020 Prudential is reportedly in talks that could lead to it taking full control of its joint venture with Chinese lender Citic. Changes to foreign ownership laws in China have for the first time made it possible for the insurance giant to own all of the 50:50 joint venture, which Prudential is now working towards, a [...]
Beazley’s annual profit balloons as premiums jump February 6, 2020 Beazley’s 2019 profit was boosted by higher insurance rates after a long period of erosion, sending the underwriter’s shares 6% higher to the top of UK’s midcap index. Beazley, part of the oldest insurance market in the world, was able to raise its premium rates last year after a string of industry-wide catastrophe claims led [...]
BoE policymaker calls for stress testing to go beyond banking sector February 5, 2020 A Bank of England (BoE) policymaker has called for bank stress testing to extend beyond the banking sector. Speaking at the European Central Bank’s stress testing conference in Frankfurt, Donald Kohn said that the bank was looking at opening up stress testing to hedge funds and open-ended funds. Stress tests are used by the BoE [...]
London is a third more productive than the rest of the UK February 5, 2020 Britain’s regional productivity gap has been laid bare by new statistics that showed London was 32 per cent more productive than the UK average in 2018. The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed that the south east further pulled away from the north east and Yorkshire in 2018 – the most [...]
Square Mile sees few signs of Brexodus February 4, 2020 The number of job relocations from the Square Mile to the EU has remained far short of the thousands predicted when Britain voted to leave in 2016. Catherine McGuinness, leader of the City of London, told Reuters that the numbers of bankers and insurance and asset management staff moving to EU subsidiaries was between 2,000 [...]
Grab buys investment startup as it beefs up financial offering February 4, 2020 Softbank-backed startup Grab today said it has acquired retail wealth management startup Bento as the app looks to expand its financial services offering. The Singapore-based firm said Bento will be rebranded as Grab Invest, and its products will be rolled out in its home market and across southeast Asia in the first half of the [...]
Searchlight Capital acquires majority stake in GRP February 3, 2020 Searchlight Capital Partners has announced it will take a majority stake in Global Risk Partners (GRP). GRP founders Peter Cullum CBE and David Margrett, as well as founding investor Penta Capital, will all retain minority stakes. Searchlight paid an undisclosed fee for a majority stake but it is understand that the deal values GRP at [...]
Forging closer ties with India is crucial, but let’s not lose sight of our neighbours February 3, 2020 Now that the UK has formally left the EU, our trading ties with partners across the world will be more in focus than ever before. This includes our relationship with India, a country I visited last week to promote ties in financial and professional services. The UK-India partnership is now worth some £20bn, with nearly [...]