City Moves for 7 March 2017 – who’s switching jobs? March 7, 2017 Today's City Moves cover corporate broking, risk and insurance advisory and corporate advisory. Take a look at these movers and shakers: Peel Hunt Peel Hunt, the independent corporate broking, advisory and trading house focused on UK mid and small caps, has appointed Damindu Jayaweera to the role of Technology Analyst, effective immediately. Damindu joins from [...]
Pensions taskforce to call for £1.5 trillion superfund to plug black holes in UK’s retirement funds March 6, 2017 A group of pensions experts will call on the government in the next few days to set up a £1.5 trillion superfund to fix the UK's pensions crisis. According to Sky News, which first reported the story, the committee set up by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) is expected to urge ministers to consolidate all of [...]
Which stock market sectors will benefit as inflation heats up? March 6, 2017 We wrote last year about our expectation that inflation would soon start to re-emerge in Europe, and that banks were likely to be among the chief beneficiaries. This scenario has indeed come to pass, perhaps even more quickly than we had anticipated. With signs of inflation becoming ever more apparent, which other sectors should investors [...]
Comparethemarket owner bumps up sales giving Aleksandr and Sergei something to write home about March 6, 2017 The owner of price comparison website Comparethemarket today revealed double-digit revenue growth during the first six months of its financial year. The figures BGL, which also owns Beagle Street and Budget Insurance brands, said group revenue jumped 14 per cent. Comparethemarket.com revenue increased by 15 per cent, while lesfurets.com (literally, the ferets) revenues soared by 34 per [...]
Chinese insurance regulators plan to relax rules, giving larger firms the green light to restart overseas investment March 6, 2017 Chinese insurance watchdogs are planning a regulatory shake-up that will reboot larger firms’ ability to expand overseas. Discussions are being held over changing the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) from a single body to a tailored framework that takes into account a number of facets of insurers including size, solvency ratios and risk tolerance, sources [...]
Merger between Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management set to create UK’s largest asset manager March 5, 2017 Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management are expected to announce detailed plans for their £11bn merger on Monday morning, in a move that will create the second-largest fund manager in Europe. The new £11bn company will have £660bn in combined assets under administration, making it the biggest fund manager in the UK on completion, as [...]
Aviva and Legal General set to report profit rises March 5, 2017 Insurers Aviva and Legal & General are expected to report profit rises when they report on Wednesday and Thursday respectively next week. Analysts expect Aviva’s full-year operating profits to rise 8 per cent to £2.9bn and Legal & General is likely to advise operating profit increases of £1.6bn, an increase of 13 per cent, compared [...]
City lobbyists to launch a fresh bid for “mutual recognition” between UK and EU financial regulators March 5, 2017 A major City lobby group is set to launch a fresh bid to win support for mutual regulatory recognition for the UK and the EU's finance businesses within weeks. TheCityUK is to double-down on calls for a bespoke deal on financial services based on a principle of mutual market access for firms on both sides of the [...]
This chart shows what’s changed since since the Bank of England began its quantitative easing programme in 2009 March 4, 2017 Tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of the Bank of England (BoE)'s quantitative easing (QE) programme and of interest rates being cut to the "emergency" level of 0.5 per cent. It also happens to be the deadline for written submission to the treasury select committee's enquiry into the effectiveness and impact of the post-2008 monetary policy. Laith Khalaf, senior [...]
Taxi for Uber: High Court rules in favour of TfL saying private hire drivers will have to pass a written English exam March 3, 2017 Uber has lost a key part of its High Court case against Transport for London (TfL), after a High Court ruled private hire drivers will be forced to pass a written English exam. The firm did though, win other parts of its case, so it won't have to provide a telephone call centre for passengers open 24 hours [...]