Now Santander lets you make payments using just your voice February 13, 2017 More proof that voice control is the future… Santander is now letting customers make payments just by asking their phone, along with several other new functions that work in a similar way to Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa Users of the bank's SmartBank app can use their voice to check their account balance, report a lost [...]
This is why a Silicon Valley entrepreneur believes London could produce the next Facebook February 12, 2017 By the time Clara Shih turned 30, she was a Starbucks board member, had raised $21m (£16.7m) for her social media startup and had become a bestselling author. A Stanford and Oxford graduate, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur founded software company Hearsay Social [now Hearsay Systems] in 2009 to make financial giants look slick on social media [...]
Focus On Victoria: A £4bn investment in housing, retail and infrastructure is making it a destination in its own right February 10, 2017 If the Queen’s getting a £369m refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, it seems only fair that the neighbourhood surrounding it should get a polish, too. £4bn should just about cover it, and that’s how much has been invested in the area by developer Land Securities over the last five years. Around £700bn of that has gone [...]
London’s financial services can thrive says EU commissioner – but only if we work together February 10, 2017 London’s financial services can continue to thrive after Brexit but only if it works with the EU on regulation, according to a top EU diplomat. In a speech in the capital Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s commissioner for financial services, called for a more harmonised international regulatory system, in which the UK can play a central [...]
Major natural catastrophe losses totalled $39.5bn in 2016 February 10, 2017 Losses from natural catastrophes reached a four-year high last year, driven by an earthquake in Japan and a wildfire in Canada. Insured losses arising out of natural catastrophes hit $39.5bn (£31.6bn) last year, which is the highest they've been since 2012, according to Willis Re. The largest single insured loss in 2016 came from the [...]
UK trade deficit narrows in fourth quarter as non-EU countries buy more February 10, 2017 The trade deficit narrowed in the fourth quarter as exports to countries outside the European Union (EU) rose sharply. The deficit shrank to £8.6bn between October and December, a £5.6bn drop from the third quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Exports to the EU rose steadily, but they were outshone by a £43.8bn increase in [...]
City Moves for 10 February 2017 – who’s switching jobs? February 10, 2017 Squire Patton Boggs Squire Patton Boggs has appointed Ian Wood as a partner in its global energy and natural resources practice group in the London office. Ian joins the firm from the energy and infrastructure group at King & Wood Mallesons in London, along with senior associate Rebecca Slater from his previous team. Ian has expertise in power [...]
Self-inflicted sickies and write-off days cost UK economy £73bn February 9, 2017 Workers in the UK forfeit more than a month productivity each year through absence and underperformance caused by illness, according to Vitality. The new analysis of the insurer’s Britain's Healthiest Workplace survey – carried out by researchers from Cambridge University, RAND Europe and Mercer – lays the blame squarely on employees, with half of days off caused by [...]
This is our best chance to scrap the toxic American tax law that makes pariahs out of US citizens February 9, 2017 We have President Trump in our sights. Having this week officially launched the Washington DC-based Campaign to Repeal FATCA, we’re lobbying to have America’s toxic, imperialistic global tax law swept into the dustbin of history. I’ve been an outspoken critic of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) since it was rushed through Congress by [...]
Zurich profits up as chief executive’s turnaround plan takes hold February 9, 2017 Profits at Zurich soared as the Swiss insurer cut costs and operating profit at its general insurance segment rose by 182 per cent. The figures Full year net income attributable to shareholders rose 74 per cent to $3.2bn (£2.6bn). Fourth quarter income swung from a loss of $424m in 2015 to a gain of $685m. [...]