How City businesses are going digital for City Giving Day September 7, 2020 This year, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s City Giving Day celebrations will be somewhat different. Many organisations, both new and old, will have to rethink the way they organise events. And we’ve been thrilled that companies have embraced the chance to broaden their horizons and find even more creative ways to support our communities. They are [...]
The City View: Rational markets and innovative central banks? An investor’s guide to the crisis, with Phil Smeaton September 7, 2020 In this episode Christian talks to Phil Smeaton, chief investment officer for Sanlam Private Wealth, about how markets have behaved in recent months and the forces that could shape them over the rest of this year. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS Phil discusses the fall in the value of the US dollar; the US [...]
The Square Mile is welcoming Londoners back to the City September 7, 2020 Every week, we are seeing more people trickling back to the City of London for work, school, or simply to visit this world-class destination. Despite the sights across the Square Mile remaining strikingly familiar, those who have already returned will have noticed a number of changes. A new dawn has begun in the City. A [...]
HSBC’s looming pensions crisis: will the bank win the battle but lose the war? September 4, 2020 A business of any reasonable size should have members of its team scanning the horizon for potential problems, like Frederick Fleet in the crow’s nest of RMS Titanic. The most dangerous crises, though, are those which fall on a company from an apparently cloudless sky: those which hit unprepared, and leave a business scrabbling for [...]
Patreon valuation hits $1.2bn as it raises $90m in new funding round September 2, 2020 Patreon is now valued at more than $1bn as it announced it had raised $90m in a new funding round which it will use to expand internationally. Patreon, whose platform lets creators earn money from fans through a subscription service, said it had secured an additional round of $90m (£67.42m) in funding in a Series [...]
Can office workers save the day for local businesses ravaged by Covid-19? September 2, 2020 The sudden shift to remote working put in place by the majority of UK businesses may herald the end of the office, at least as we know it. Five months and multiple government campaigns later, and the shift to the kitchen table continues, seemingly unabated. According to a survey from US bank Morgan Stanley, just [...]
Boris Johnson picks Number 10 official as top civil servant August 31, 2020 Boris Johnson has reportedly chosen a Number 10 official as the head of the civil service, indicating the Prime Minister is pressing on with wide-sweeping reforms. Johnson will appoint Simon Case to head up the civil service on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times. Case was appointed as the PM’s temporary permanent secretary in Number [...]
A no-deal Brexit could cause the UK’s digital sector to shrink August 28, 2020 The EU’s trade negotiator Michel Barnier recently said that a post-Brexit deal seemed unlikely. This supports our view at Securys that the Brexit transition period will close without an adequacy agreement, bringing an end to the unrestricted flow of data between the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). Buried in a weekend article came [...]
UK economy: Retail footfall grows but job vacancies flatline August 27, 2020 The UK economy has continued its mixed recovery, with the number of Britons venturing out to the shops rising again but online job adverts staying flat for the third week in a row. Some areas remained in much worse shape than others, with 51 per cent of workers in the art and entertainment sector furloughed, [...]
EU trade boss Phil Hogan resigns over ‘golfgate’ August 26, 2020 EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan has today resigned after breaching coronavirus restrictions by attending a golf dinner. “It was becoming increasingly clear that the controversy concerning my recent visit to Ireland was becoming a distraction from my work as an EU Commissioner and would undermine my work in the key months ahead”, Hogan said in [...]