City Moves for 19 August – Who’s switching jobs at 11:FS, Severfield and Sedgwick? August 19, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes 11:FS, Severfield and Sedgwick. 11:FS 11:FS, the challenger firm that builds digitally-native financial services through technology, product and design expertise, has announced that Michael Curds has joined the firm as head of talent. He brings a wealth of experience in scaling digtally-native business, having most recently led the talent team at [...]
Danske Bank thinks US Fed will slash rates to one per cent by March August 16, 2019 Denmark’s biggest bank has predicted that the US Federal Reserve will slash its interest rate down to one per cent by March 2020. Danske Bank said it expects five more 25 basis point (0.25 percentage point) cuts between now and the Fed’s March 2020 meeting to “reflate the economy and markets”. Read more: Markets drop [...]
High Court blocks Prudential’s £12bn transfer of annuities to Rothesay August 16, 2019 The High Court has taken the highly unusual measure of blocking a proposal by Prudential to transfer £12bn of annuities to Rothesay Life. Prudential said it was “disappointed” by the High Court’s decision to block the sale to Rothesay – a private company backed by Blackstone – which was agreed in March last year. “The [...]
Union urges Ryanair to attend talks to avert summer strikes August 15, 2019 A trade union has urged Ryanair to attend talks to resolve the current dispute with its pilots over pay and working conditions. The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), which has over 10,000 members, has called on the budget airline to attend talks with the Acas conciliation service after pilots voted for strike action for Thursday [...]
Prudential outlines demerger date as first-half profits rise August 14, 2019 Britain’s biggest insurer Prudential said this morning that its highly-anticipated demerger will take place later this year, as it also reported a double-digit rise in profits for the first half of 2019. Plans to separate the firm’s UK business, M&GPrudential, from its Asian and US operations were confirmed by the group’s management team this morning, [...]
Admiral profits dented £33m by insurance regulation change August 14, 2019 Car insurer Admiral has taken a £33.3m hit to its profits following the introduction of changes to how compensation for those injured in accidents is calculated. The figures The government changed the Ogden rate, which governs how much insurers pay to people seriously injured in car accidents, in July. Admiral said the changes had cut [...]
Aspen pays out £8m to NHS in antitrust probe August 14, 2019 Aspen Pharmacare has agreed to pay £8m to the NHS as part of a settlement with the competition watchdog after admitting it made an anti-competitive deal with two other companies. The drug maker has accepted it formed an “illegal, anti-competitive agreement” when it entered into an agreement with two rivals in 2016. Read more: Private [...]
Government proposals to fix the NHS pension crisis still miss the mark August 14, 2019 It has been an unfortunate theme over recent years that public services have to reach crisis point before the government is stirred to take action. And here we have the mother of all crises (that is, the NHS crisis) made worse by a desperately confusing pensions system. When a tax rule is effectively stopping doctors [...]
UK lawyers taking Belgian citizenship in case of no-deal Brexit August 13, 2019 UK lawyers in Brussels are taking Belgian citizenship in order to keep practising before the European courts post-Brexit. Brussels is a key centre for competition law and most large international law firms have an office there to advise clients on European law issues. Trevor Soames, a Brussels-based partner with US law firm Quinn Emanuel who [...]
City Moves for 13 August – Who’s switching jobs at Circassia, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RPMI? August 13, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes Circassia, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RPMI. Circassia Dr Rod Hafner, senior vice president of research and development at Circassia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on respiratory disease, will step down from the board after 11 years as a director. However, Rod will remain part of the senior management [...]