Covid-19, a year on: the need for a more diverse UK economy March 26, 2021 In this series, City A.M. looks back at the last year of the pandemic and Covid restrictions and takes stock of its impact on industries and issues at the heart of British society. Read more: Read the full Covid-19, a year on series here. The UK’s economy was hit by a 10 per cent drop in GDP [...]
Post-Brexit City must be freed from European-style over regulation March 26, 2021 It has always been perceived wisdom that it was greedy bankers to blame for the financial collapse of 2008/9. The truth, however, is very different. Looking back, years of Establishment “too big to fail” support for uneconomic banking and financial institutions which began in the 1970s and culminated in the Greenspan intervention to save markets [...]
Uncovering Japan’s hidden gems March 25, 2021 Chern-Yeh Kwok, manager of the Aberdeen Japan Investment Trust, says there is real value in Japanese markets, but it is often overlooked by investors. Japanese companies are used to dealing with a tough backdrop and their natural caution served them well in 2020 The Japanese market thrived amid widespread volatility last year, rising 16% Japanese [...]
Tencent confirms talks with regulators amid China tech crackdown March 24, 2021 Tencent has confirmed it is in talks with Chinese antitrust regulators as authorities in Beijing ramp up the pressure on tech firms. President Martin Lau today said the company’s founder Ma Huateng had held a voluntary meeting with antitrust watchdog officials this month to discuss compliance at the company. He said the two sides had [...]
Manpower CEO: Remote working isn’t unsustainable but it’s certainly not desirable March 24, 2021 Reports on the death of office working have been exaggerated, according to Manpower CEO Jonas Prising. However, so too has the backlash against remote working exemplified by the bosses of Barclays and Goldman Sachs (who labelled the work-from-home era an abheration). So, one year on from the Prime Minister’s orders to “work from home if [...]
Ministers mull making home and flexible working a legal right March 24, 2021 The government is said to be weighing up an expansion of employees’ rights to work flexible hours or from home after a shift in habits during the coronavirus pandemic. A public consultation is set to be launched later this year on how the flexible approach to office life could be extended so that Brits can [...]
UK signs post-Brexit investment partnership deal with UAE March 24, 2021 The UK has signed an investment deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will see the gulf nation spend an initial £800m in British life sciences. The UK government will also contribute £200m to life sciences in the deal, bringing the total value of the initial investment to £1bn. The partnership will include similar [...]
Online trading: Potent cocktail of social media and thrill-seeking investors creates ‘crypto wild west’ March 23, 2021 This morning the FCA said young people are increasingly engaging with risky investments like foreign exchange and cryptocurrency, despite not having the capacity for loss if the investment goes wrong. The warning lays bare a large group of thrill-seeking youngsters, solely interested in speculative short term gains. The financial watchdog found that nearly two-thirds [...]
UK unemployment: Covid impact on young people ‘could last a lifetime’ March 23, 2021 The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on young people’s job prospects “could last a lifetime”, according to analysts. Unemployment data released this morning by the Office for National Statistics showed that under-25s make up two thirds of the 700,000 job losses since the start of the pandemic. Lorna Carter-Blake, managing director at DA Training and [...]
Half of CEOs don’t expect a return to normal this year, but the push to embrace remote working stalls March 23, 2021 Half of CEOs don't expect a return to normal until 2022, but their push to embrace remote working has stalled, with fewer downsizing offices or advertising fully remote job postings