Financial news

• 'In' leads by 2 percentage points ahead of Britain’s EU referendum – ICM poll

  16-03-2016 22:31
  
  (Reuters) - Support for Britain to stay in the European Union stood at 43 percent, ahead of support for a withdrawal from the 28-member bloc, which stood at 41 percent, an opinion poll by ICM suggested on Thursday, ahead of a referendum on June 23.
  
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• Gearing up: how Taipei's bike-sharing program is transforming citizens' commute

  16-03-2016 22:30
  
  Taipei’s YouBike program nearly collapsed four years ago. It now thrives after a much-needed upgrade made the bikes better and cheaper to rentTAIPEI, Taiwan – Taipei’s rental bikes are hard to miss. The Taiwanese capital has 7,264 of them, and their distinctive orange frames, yellow fenders and smiley face logo are nearly as common in some parts of town as the city’s ubiquitous motor scooters. Last year, the city’s bike rental program logged more than 20m trips, a s
  
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• Libor trader Hayes tells court he used spread-betting gains to buy house

  16-03-2016 21:46
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Tom Hayes, the former trader serving an 11-year jail sentence for conspiracy to rig Libor interest rates, told a London court on Wednesday that he had paid for about half of his seven-bedroom country house with cash earned privately from spread-betting.
  
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• Business rate changes in budget leaves councils facing further cuts

  16-03-2016 21:41
  
  George Osborne outlines plans to extend business rate reliefs in a move that will take £7bn out of total receipts Councils are bracing themselves for more cuts and financial uncertainty after George Osborne announced major changes to business rates in the budget. Osborne revealed that measures to extend business rate relief to smaller business and shops will take £7bn out of the total business rate take in England over the next five years. Continue reading...
  
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• Kipper Williams on Tesco plans for management to be nicer

  16-03-2016 21:39
  
  Tesco is pushing to make its managers more pleasant and well-mannered towards colleagues Continue reading...
  
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• Budget 2016: magical thinking from charmed world of the chancellor | Jonathan Freedland

  16-03-2016 21:33
  
  It’s not just the economic forecasting that makes George Osborne’s budget read like a work of magical realism, it’s his own recordA George Osborne budget has become an exercise in magical thinking. The chancellor comes to the despatch box, his face stern and manner sober, to present a vision of the economic and fiscal future comprised of nothing more solid than a series of heroic assumptions, hypothetical figures and feats of creative accountancy – all anchored in the shi
  
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• George Osborne is a Roman emperor indulged in all his follies and fads | Simon Jenkins

  16-03-2016 21:28
  
  As the chancellor delivered his eighth budget, we saw the hazards of a politician grown overmightyThe chancellor, George Osborne, is monarch of the political glen. From his Treasury fastness he commands all he sees. Those he favours prosper, those who displease him die. But in today’sbudget we saw him in more cautious mode. Last year he boasted of “a budget that takes Britain one more big step on the road from austerity to prosperity”. This year, with Britain’s growth for
  
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• We won't cut spending, McDonnell promises as Labour derides budget

  16-03-2016 21:24
  
  Shadow chancellor sets out economic plans, while Jeremy Corbyn says George Osborne budget has ‘unfairness at its very core’Labour will fight the next general election campaign without any plans for spending cuts, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said.After the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said George Osborne’s budget was laced with “unfairness at its very core”, the shadow chancellor pledged to eliminate the current budget deficit by stimulating grea
  
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• Fed announces interest rates will remain unchanged after talk of hike

  16-03-2016 21:19
  
  US central bank has said that rates will stay at 0.25% to 0.5% for at least another month as most economics predict a hike will be announced in JuneThe Federal Reserve (Fed) put any further increase in US interest rates on hold on Wednesday, announcing rates will remain unchanged for at least another month.The potential hike was postponed after fears of a slowdown in China and collapsing oil prices have rattled investors worldwide. Continue reading...
  
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• Osborne puts £500m towards national funding formula for schools

  16-03-2016 21:18
  
  Education secretary Nicky Morgan will outline new education measures in white paperA plan to rebalance school funding away from London and other inner cities will be accelerated with an additional £500m investment, the chancellor announced in his budget.George Osborne said his aim was for 90% of the schools that would benefit from the new formula to have been fully moved to the new system by 2020. Schools in some shire areas such as West Sussex are expected to be among the principal benefi
  
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• Retailers complain that Osborne has not done enough to help high streets

  16-03-2016 20:56
  
  Budget includes overhaul of business rates system, but shop owners complain that more needs to be doneRetailers have warned that an overhaul of the controversial business rates system that will lead to a £7bn tax cut for small businesses is not enough to help high streets across the country.George Osborne announced in the budget that 600,000 small businesses would no longer have to pay business rates and that he would change how the levy was calculated for those who still had to pay it. Co
  
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• Osborne targets overseas sellers on Amazon and eBay in VAT clampdown

  16-03-2016 20:51
  
  Chancellor estimates measure will recoup £875m in lost receipts over four years, but campaigners say it doesn’t go far enoughMeasures targeted at an army of overseas sellers using Amazon and eBay to evade VAT were at the heart of a £12bn tax clampdown announced by the chancellor.A host of other tax avoidance strategies were also in George Osborne’s sights. They ranged from schemes that disguised an individual’s earnings as loans, to businesses taking on commercially
  
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• Oil price plunge 'will lead to £1bn burden on taxpayers'

  16-03-2016 20:29
  
  George Osborne introduces budget measures to help North Sea industry which is forecast to make losses until at least 2021The North Sea oil industry, once a huge moneyspinner for the Treasury, is set to become a £1bn burden for the taxpayer next year as the plunging crude price hits revenues.Related: The Guardian view on the budget: a poorer country, a diminished chancellor | EditorialContinue reading...
  
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• Osborne considers compulsory maths lessons for under-18s

  16-03-2016 20:28
  
  Chancellor’s proposal to bolster educational attainment dismissed as ‘undeliverable’ due to teacher shortageThe government is considering making all pupils study maths to the age of 18, the chancellor has announced in his budget statement. Related: Maths isn’t the problem - the way it’s taught is | Tim GowersContinue reading...
  
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• Asda to cut up to 750 jobs

  16-03-2016 20:26
  
  Supermarket chain will also close staff canteens as part of turnaround plan called Project RenewalAsda has confirmed plans to cut up to 500 jobs in stores and 250 at its head office in Leeds as the retailer battles to protect profits while sales slide.The supermarket chain is to close staff canteens in all stores and axe some shopfloor services such as photo processing and pizza-making as part of a turnaround plan called Project Renewal. Continue reading...
  
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• Shaw report: Network Rail's breakup and privatisation rejected

  16-03-2016 20:23
  
  Review by chief executive of HS1 calls for greater local flexibility and autonomy for Britain’s railwaysThe wholesale privatisation and breakup of Network Rail has been ruled out by a critical review, which argued for more devolution in the running of the railways rather than full-scale reform. However, the report by Nicola Shaw, the chief executive of HS1, left open the possibility of bringing more private finance into the running of the railways, at local level or for specific projects.C
  
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• Osborne's mighty gamble on corporate tax base | Nils Pratley

  16-03-2016 20:20
  
  Corporate tax changes are slated to bring in an extra £9bn but once again these revenue-raising measures are calculated on assumptions, conjecture and hopeGeorge Osborne seems to have learned his political lesson from the fiasco of Google’s modest tax settlement with HM Revenue & Customs. Back in January, the chancellor looked ridiculous as he hailed the £130m deal as a “major success” while almost everybody else concluded the sum, covering a 10-year period, was
  
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• Former UK Athletics coach handed lifetime ban

  16-03-2016 18:39
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Former UK Athletics coach George Skafidas has been handed a lifetime ban from sport for doping offences relating to sprinter Bernice Wilson, Britain's anti-doping agency said on Wednesday.
  
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• Britain's surprise tax on sugary drinks delights health campaigners

  16-03-2016 18:25
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will introduce a sugar levy on soft drinks in two years' time to tackle a growing obesity crisis, Chancellor George Osborne said in a surprise announcement on Wednesday, delighting health campaigners and angering drink makers.
  
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• Budget 2016 live: Osborne unveils 'sugar tax' and lifetime Isas as growth forecast cut

  16-03-2016 17:33
  
  Budget 2016 key pointsLive coverage, news updates and analysisOsborne announces new ‘lifetime ISA’ for young savers‘Sugar levy’ on soft drinks to be spent on school sportsGrowth forecasts cut but surplus target maintainedRestricts tax loopholes for big corporations 4.33pm GMTThe Welfare Cap has turned into something of a Heffalump trap for George Osborne.According to the OBR today, the government is on track to miss its self-imposed limit to welfare spending every year un
  
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• Amazon and eBay to be held liable for VAT fraud by sellers

  16-03-2016 17:32
  
  Chancellor George Osborne gives tax inspectors new powers to warn overseas sellers active in UKAmazon and eBay are to be held liable, in some cases, for VAT fraud committed by a growing army of overseas sellers using their websites – and costing Britain hundreds of millions of pounds a year in lost tax receipts.The chancellor is giving tax inspectors new powers to warn high-risk overseas sellers active in the UK through eBay and Amazon. If, after those warnings, sellers do not correctly co
  
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• Startup of the Year 2015-2016 competition entry: Gallinée

  16-03-2016 17:29
  
  In their own words: ‘We wanted to prove future retailers there was a true market for biotic skincare’Marie Drago, founder of Gallinée, explains why the business should win the Startup of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition: We are two friends who are launching a very innovative beauty brand: the first to take care of your skin microbiome, your bacterial ecosystem. With disruptive ideas but no budget, we wanted to prove future retailers there w
  
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• LSE's merger with Deutsche Börse will trouble shareholders

  16-03-2016 17:28
  
  Purists are likely to argue that if somebody wants to grab the London Stock Exchange, they should offer a proper price The London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse haven’t managed to settle on a name for their proposed union – it still labours under the clunky title of UK TopCo – but both parties insist the deal would be that rare thing, a “merger of equals”.That’s half the problem, many LSE shareholders will feel. Their exchange is not obviously in need
  
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• EDF chief's gambit suggests will get backing for Hinkley Point

  16-03-2016 17:22
  
  PARIS (Reuters) - An apparent ultimatum from the chief executive of EDF suggests he is confident that the French government will provide the additional financial support he wants for a plan to build nuclear reactors in Britain.
  
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• Budget 2016: If George Osborne is giving me free money, why would I need a pension?

  16-03-2016 16:55 via telegraph.feedsportal.com
  
  The Chancellor's Lifetime Isa for young people creates a simpler alternative to investing in a pension, which risks rendering it pointless
  
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• Manners maketh management: Tesco bosses told to be nicer to staff

  16-03-2016 16:43
  
  Supermarket’s UK boss Matt Davies wants to develop culture of appreciation of staff to boost customer serviceTesco has asked managers to use basic courtesies with their staff as part of efforts to turn around the struggling supermarket chain. Managers are being encouraged to say please and thank you to employees and praise them when they have done a good job, in an attempt to encourage better customer service. Continue reading...
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn blasts budget: the culmination of George Osborne's failures – video

  16-03-2016 16:41
  
  Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour party, gives his response to George Osborne’s budget on Wednesday. He says it is the result of six years of failed policies from the Conservative government. Corbyn points out the revisions made to the UK’s economic growth forecasts and adds that there is still no balanced budgetBudget 2016 live: Osborne hails ‘sugar tax’ on soft drinks but cuts growth forecasts
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• George Osborne's budget is for the very short term only

  16-03-2016 16:35
  
  The chancellor had to explain why the economy is doing worse than was forecast four months agoBudgets have a tendency to unravel. Sometimes it can take months, even years, for the problems to surface. More often they are exposed within 24 hours once the Institute for Fiscal Studies has sharpened its claws. But George Osborne’s eighth package was a bit of a rarity. The holes in it were obvious even before he had finished speaking.Issue number one for the chancellor was how to explain away t
  
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• Budget 2016: George Osborne's speech in charts

  16-03-2016 16:29 via telegraph.feedsportal.com
  
  Following George Osborne's announcement of the 2016 Budget, The Telegraph looks at the numbers on the UK's economy and financial health
  
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• Simon Nixon offloads his remaining shares in Moneysupermarket.com

  16-03-2016 16:28
  
  Co-founder sells final tranche of shares in price comparison site for £124m, bringing total raised from shareholding to £700mSimon Nixon, the university dropout turned multimillionaire co-founder of Moneysupermarket.com, has sold the final tranche of his shareholding in the comparison website for £124m.Nixon offloaded his remaining 6.9% stake on Wednesday for 328p a share. The move prompted the company’s share price to dip by about 5% to 326p. Continue reading...
  
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• Our columnists’ verdict on the 2016 budget | Anne Perkins, Aditya Chakrabortty, Gaby Hinsliff, Polly Toynbee

  16-03-2016 16:24
  
  Has George Osborne’s sugary bunny sweetened the pill of further cuts, and is this his big pitch for the leadership? Continue reading...
  
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• Wealth managers get budget boost from UK savings rule changes

  16-03-2016 16:17
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Companies managing the wealth of British retail investors were boosted on Wednesday after Chancellor George Osborne announced fresh plans to encourage people to save more.
  
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• Lifetime Isa: what is it and how does it work?

  16-03-2016 16:00
  
  This savings account will help young people save for a home or for their retirement, with the government adding a bonus of up to £1,000 every year
  The chancellor’s budget included the announcement of a lifetime Isa to help young people save for their first home or retirement. Continue reading...
  
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• Budget 2016: George Osborne unveils sugar tax as growth forecast falls

  16-03-2016 15:58
  
  • Proceeds of levy on soft drinks to fund school sports
  • Cuts to business rates, capital gains and corporation tax
  • Income tax personal allowance increased
  • Growth forecast down from 2.4% to 2%George Osborne has unveiled a new tax on sugary drinks, such as Coke, Red Bull and Irn Bru, pledging to use the takings to provide more sports funding for schools. The policy, described by Conservative colleagues as “nanny statism at its worst”, was a centrepiece of a wid
  
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• Oil firms and housebuilders climb but soft drinks decline after budget

  16-03-2016 15:50
  
  Tax changes lift oil companies but sugar tax sends Britvic and AG Barr lowerOil companies, housebuilders and investment companies were boosted by chancellor George Osborne’s budget speech, but news of a sugar tax sent soft drinks firms tumbling.Overall the FTSE 100 rose from 6144 at the start of Osborne’s speech to 6171 - up 31 points on the day - by the time he sat down, as business welcomed the proposed cuts in corporation tax. Continue reading...
  
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• Sylvia Anderson, voice of Lady Penelope in 'Thunderbirds', dies

  16-03-2016 15:32
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Television writer and producer Sylvia Anderson, the voice of Lady Penelope in popular 1960s television show "Thunderbirds", has died aged 88 after a short illness.
  
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• Osborne announces soft drinks sugar tax and tax-free personal allowance – budget highlights video

  16-03-2016 15:31
  
  Some key moments in George Osborne’s 2016 budget speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday. The chancellor announces a new £520m levy on sugary drinks and plans to raise the basic rate tax allowance and the higher rate thresholdFollow the latest reaction to the budget speech with our live blog
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• America's largest coalminer Peabody Energy may file for bankruptcy

  16-03-2016 15:25
  
  Company says there’s ‘substantial doubt’ it will go on after delaying $70m payment amid slowing global economy and tougher environmental standardsThe largest American coalminer, Peabody Energy, is delaying an interest payment due this week and warned that it may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Related: Peabody strikes deal with New York attorney general over climate risk filingsContinue reading...
  
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• Forbidden Technologies jumps 25% after Microsoft deal

  16-03-2016 15:17
  
  US corporation to sell Forbidden Technologies’ cloud video platformForbidden Technologies has seen its market value soar by more than a quarter after it signed a cloud computing deal with Microsoft.The AIM-listed business is up 2.375p at 11.625p, having climbed as high as 15p, as it announced the US corporation would sell the company’s cloud video service Forscene through its Azure marketplace. Forbidden Technologies said the agreement gives it access to Microsoft’s sales force
  
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• London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse agree terms on £20bn merger

  16-03-2016 15:15
  
  Stock exchanges planning to cut costs by £354m a year over three yearsDeutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange said they expected to cut costs by €450m (£354m) a year as they sought to press on with their agreed £20bn deal and ward off a potential rival bid from the US.The exchanges set out the terms and benefits of what they described as a merger of equals. As expected, Deutsche Börse shareholders will own 54.4% of the new company with LSE shareholders ownin
  
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• Budget 2016: The winners who will pocket MORE after the Chancellor's changes

  16-03-2016 15:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  GEORGE Osborne has revealed his second all-Tory Budget cutting billions of pounds from government spending, while making select groups of people richer.
  
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• Live Q&A: where are the women in tech?

  16-03-2016 15:08
  
  Join our live panel from 12pm on Thursday 17th March to discuss why so few women are entering the technology sector and what we can do to bring balance to the industryIn 2015 just 18% of US computer science graduates were female. More worrying still is the fact that this number is part of a downward trend; in the early 1980s it was 37%. However, the growth in new jobs in the technology sector is predicted to outstrip that of other sectors. If women really want to be at the seat of power in the f
  
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• Young people are right to be angry about their financial insecurity

  16-03-2016 14:56
  
  Social injustice on an unprecedented scale, massive inequities and loss of trust in elites define our political moment – and rightly soSomething interesting has emerged in voting patterns on both sides of the Atlantic: young people are voting in ways that are markedly different from their elders. A great divide appears to have opened up, based not so much on income, education or gender, as on the voters’ generation.There are good reasons for this divide. The lives of both old and you
  
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• British Gas owner Centrica's CEO earns £3m in his first year

  16-03-2016 14:19
  
  Energy boss receives £580,000 bonus and £600,000 ‘recruitment award’ despite fall in underlying profits and 4,000 job lossesIain Conn, the chief executive of British Gas’s owner Centrica, earned £3m in his first 12 months despite overseeing a fall in underlying profits and making thousands of job cuts.The energy boss received a £580,000 bonus and a £600,000 “recruitment award” as well as a basic salary of £925,000. Continue readin
  
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• UK watchdog says ex-Schroders trader admits 9 insider dealing offences

  16-03-2016 11:15
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - A former stock market trader at Schroders Investment Management, has pleaded guilty to nine counts of insider trading spanning nine years, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said on Tuesday.
  
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• Fractured electorate hampers efforts to mend 'slow puncture' economy

  16-03-2016 11:15
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - The combination of a slow-growth world of shrinking policy options and the splintered political voting patterns it's fostered is stifling the global economy at a critical juncture.
  
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• Low UK inflation improves households' financial outlook, Markit says - Reuters UK

  16-03-2016 10:38
  Low UK inflation improves households' financial outlook, Markit says
  Reuters UK
  LONDON Low inflation has improved the financial outlook of British households to its brightest since January 2015, despite a drop in take-home pay, a survey showed on Wednesday. Markit said its Household Finance Index for March weakened slightly after ...en meer »
  

• Fed expected to keep interest rates unchanged after talk of potential hike

  16-03-2016 07:00
  
  US central bank expected to keep rates at 0.25% to 0.5% at end of March meeting, but chair Janet Yellen may hint at two more hikes later this yearThe Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged in a range of 0.25% to 0.5% when it concludes its two-day March meeting on Wednesday, putting off a planned rise after fears of a slowdown in China and collapsing oil prices have rattled investors worldwide. Most economists expect Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to hint at two interest
  
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• RBS to cut 448 UK jobs in investment bank to reduce costs

  16-03-2016 03:25
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland plans to eliminate almost 500 UK-based jobs in its investment bank in an effort to cut costs, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
  
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• What happens when you pour molten copper on a Big Mac – video

  16-03-2016 02:50
  
  This experiment on the McDonald’s burger, which appears to hold up pretty well to the fierce heat, has amassed close to 2m views on YouTube. It is the latest work of YouTuber Tito4re, whose previous works include pouring the molten metal on anything from tennis balls to coconuts Continue reading...
  
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