Regulators welcome fintech but aren’t sure what to do with it February 23, 2017 Regulators have a 'wait and see' attitude about regulating fintech. Two governmental organisations recently released reports on regulatory approaches to fintech advances, including blockchain. First, the US Federal Reserve Board released its report on distributed ledger technology (i.e., blockchain) in payments, clearing, and settlement. Following that release, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) — a joint [...]
Barclays’ 2016 pre-tax profits almost treble at £3.2bn, as it eyes an early close for non-core February 23, 2017 Barclays revealed this morning that its profits had shot up during 2016, and announced it would close down its non-core unit earlier than planned. The figures The banking giant reported a profit before tax of £3.2bn, up 182 per cent from £1.1bn in 2015. However, the figure missed the analysts' consensus, which had predicted profits before tax [...]
RSA grew profit and earnings last year despite underlying premiums dip February 23, 2017 RSA has reported profit and earnings growth in 2016, surpassing analyst expectations with a set of results that chief exec Stephen Hester said demonstrated a "seamless" transition from transition to outperformance. The figures Group operating profit went up 25 per cent to £655m, from £523m last year, while underlying pre-tax profit rose to £556m from [...]
Regulators welcome fintech but aren’t sure what to do with it February 23, 2017 Regulators have a 'wait and see' attitude about regulating fintech. Two governmental organisations recently released reports on regulatory approaches to fintech advances, including blockchain. First, the US Federal Reserve Board released its report on distributed ledger technology (i.e., blockchain) in payments, clearing, and settlement. Following that release, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) — a joint [...]
Scrap the utopian net migration target (among other things) to reconcile traditionalists and liberals on immigration February 23, 2017 Across the West, we are experiencing a growing cultural clash between liberals and traditionalists. It was encapsulated by Clinton versus Trump, and now by Macron against Le Pen in France. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair recognised this 10 years ago, saying: “The real dividing line to think of in modern politics has less to do with [...]
Shane Williams interview: Legendary Wales wing on how long-distance running filled the gap left by his rugby retirement February 22, 2017 After a 17-year career spent flying past and sometimes crashing into men nearly twice his size, Welsh rugby legend Shane Williams could have been forgiven for taking a breather after finally calling it a day. It notoriously took the diminutive Welsh winger a number of attempts to quit the game before he hung up his [...]
Lloyds Bank bumps up its bonus pool on healthy pre-tax profits February 22, 2017 Lloyds Banking Group has boosted its bonus pool, after reporting its statutory pre-tax profits had more than doubled for 2016. The bank's bonus outcome rose to £392.9m for 2016, up from £353.7m in 2015. However, Lloyds' bankers could have been in line for more – the lender also revealed today it had skimmed 19 per [...]
Bring on the robots: We should welcome the demise of the human machine February 22, 2017 In decades to come, people will reflect on the present day with bewilderment and say: “they had humans doing what?” In the blizzard of noise around a looming acceleration in technological unemployment we need to balance our fears of the rise of the robots with excitement around the impending demise of the human machine. The [...]
British Gas is rolling out a new loyalty scheme to reduce bills and give customers perks like Sky TV February 22, 2017 British Gas today announced it will invest £100m in a loyalty programme that reduces bills and partners with companies like Sky to bring fresh deals to its customers. The Centrica-owned energy firm said British Gas Rewards will launch in April for all of its customers. They'll be able to select from a new range of personalised benefits, including discounted [...]
Lloyds Bank pre-tax profits more than doubled in 2016 as PPI charges were slashed February 22, 2017 Lloyds Banking Group reported today that its statutory pre-tax profits for the year had shot up, as conduct-related charges for the year (ie. PPI costs) were more than halved. The figures The bank revealed statutory profits before tax of £4.2bn, up 158 per cent on £1.6bn the year before – although analysts had predicted the figure [...]