Financial news

• Britain is still a world-beater at one thing: ripping off its own citizens | Aditya Chakrabortty

  03-08-2017 21:06
  From energy and water bills to exorbitant rail fares, we’re all busy lining the pockets of wealthy ‘investors’And so to the big question. The one that has dogged us ever since the EU referendum and haunts every Brexiteer’s chlorinated daydreams. What is Britain for? Cliche-mongers will tell you that Britain lost an empire then couldn’t find a role. They are wrong. After careful study of recent newspaper articles, I have discovered just that new part – and toda
  
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• Swiss bank Julius Bär plans expansion in UK with new offices

  03-08-2017 20:28
  Bank for wealthy customers will open offices in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow in attempt to woo multimillionaire clientsA Swiss bank that accepts only customers with at least £2m of assets is defying Brexit with plans to expand in the UK through new offices in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow.Julius Bär will also put a small team in Belfast as it ventures beyond its UK operations in London. It is expected to hire 30 financiers for the new locations. Continue reading...
  
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• Ten years on, voters say Labor's $52bn stimulus saved Australia from recession

  03-08-2017 20:00
  A decade on from the start of the global financial crisis, voters think stimulus was money well spent, despite attacks over its size and claims of wasteTen years on from the global financial crisis, Australian voters are comfortable that the $52bn stimulus package launched by the then Labor government, while politically controversial at the time, kept the country out of recession.A new poll commissioned by the progressive thinktank, the Australia Institute, in cooperation with Labor’s Chif
  
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• Leaseholds are not the problem – abuse of them is | Editorial

  03-08-2017 19:53
  This scandal shows how normal it has become to expect to ‘earn’ exploitative rewards without risk or commensurate investment, writes Stephen HillThe abuse of leaseholds (Editorial, 26 July) is exactly that: abuse. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with leasehold/freehold arrangements in the hands of responsible (and preferably regulated) landlords. It’s worth thinking why they were invented and have endured for centuries. They are a highly effective way of allocating capital
  
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• Next shares climb 10% on news of online sales surge during heatwave

  03-08-2017 19:49
  Retailer lifts forecasts for year as Next chief says summer heatwave sparked 11.4% rise in Directory sales in second quarterNext has provided shareholders with some welcome news after the recent heatwave boosted its performance.The fashion chain’s shares were the biggest riser in the FTSE 100, climbing nearly 10%, after its chief executive, Simon Wolfson, said hot weather in June and July had triggered a surge in online sales and slowed the pace of decline in the group’s stores. Next
  
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• Sports Direct loses biggest independent investor as crisis deepens

  03-08-2017 19:40
  Standard Life offloads entire 5.8% holding and Aviva sells down stake amid concerns over corporate governance issuesSports Direct has lost its biggest independent investor as some fund managers fear the crisis-hit retailer is incapable of addressing its corporate governance issues.The Guardian has learned Standard Life, the largest independent investor at last year’s annual meeting, has bailed out of the stock, selling its entire 5.8% holding, and Aviva said it had sold down its stake. Con
  
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• The Bank keeps hinting at a rate rise. Markets will only listen for so long

  03-08-2017 19:12
  Bank of England’s suggestion that a hike is nearing is risky. Also, how the rising Dow shows Trump is delivering – for the richThe Bank of England speaks like a hawk. It acts like a dove.Those in the City expecting the Old Lady to do what it has not done for a decade – raise interest rates – would have been brought up short by the latest decision of its monetary policy committee. At 6-2 for borrowing costs to remain at 0.25%, the vote wasn’t even close. Continue rea
  
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• 'It's hard to remember how fraught it was': Mark Carney on the credit crunch

  03-08-2017 19:00
  Speaking to the Guardian 10 years on from the crash, the Bank of England governor recalls how the crisis played outWhen the financial crisis started in August 2007, the reaction of many of the participants was similar to that of the first world war generals in August 1914: they thought it would all be over by Christmas.Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said that when the markets started to seize up, some of the major players reckoned it was just a blip and that things would soon
  
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• Don't relax rules on City after Brexit, Mark Carney warns

  03-08-2017 19:00
  Bank of England governor predicts financial sector will thrive after Brexit but says there can be no return to the lax pre-2007 regimeThe governor of the Bank of England has predicted that the financial sector could double in size to be 20 times as big as GDP within the next 25 years, but warned that the government must hold its nerve and resist pressure to water down regulation after Brexit.
  Speaking to the Guardian to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the global financial crisis in Aug
  
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• Millions of eggs removed from European shelves over toxicity fears

  03-08-2017 18:47
  Recalls in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium and criminal inquiry launched as tests show high levels of insecticide fipronilMillions of eggs are being recalled from shops and warehouses in Germany and the Netherlands and being blocked from sale in Belgium after some were found to contain high levels of a toxic insecticide banned from use in the production of food for human consumption.About 180 Dutch farms have been temporarily shut down and a criminal investigation has been launched as authoriti
  
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• Pound slides as Bank of England says Brexit is hitting pay rises and investment - as it happened

  03-08-2017 17:02
  Rolling coverage of the Bank of England’s interest rate decision, and governor Carney’s press conferencePound hits nine-month lowMark Carney: Brexit uncertainty is hitting businessesCarney: Some bosses are refusing pay rises because of BrexitBank of England left interest rates unchanged and cut growth forecastsWhy the Bank left rates on holdAny questions about today?5.36pm BSTPS: we asked you all what question you’d like answered today - here’s the answer!Inflation is whe
  
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• Julius Baer plans new UK offices and hires - Financial News (subscription)

  03-08-2017 16:42
  Julius Baer plans new UK offices and hires
  Financial News (subscription)
  Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer plans to open three new offices in the UK and is hiring relationship managers to fill them, as it chases business outside London and the surrounding region. The firm announced today that offices in Manchester, Leeds and ...en meer »
  
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• Carmakers accused of 'clutching at straws' over retrofitting polluting diesels

  03-08-2017 16:23
  VW, BMW, Opel and Daimler’s promise to fix 5 million cars not enough to undo the damage done by emissions scandal, say campaigners Major car makers are being accused of clutching at straws after they agreed to fit software to 5m diesel vehicles in Germany to reduce harmful emissions by up to 30%.VW, Daimler, BMW and Opel made the decision at a summit with leading politicians in Berlin. They have been under pressure since the diesel emissions scandal two years ago exposed how VW and –
  
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• Student Loans Company comes under graduate fire, plus house prices stabilise

  03-08-2017 15:34
  Also, pay of FTSE 100 bosses revealed and women left worse off after pension age changeSign up to receive Money Talks each weekHello and welcome to this week’s Money Talks – a roundup of the week’s biggest stories and some things you may have missed. Continue reading...
  
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• British Airways cabin crew extend strike for further two weeks

  03-08-2017 14:23
  Crew in the lower-paid mixed fleet working out of Heathrow extend action to cover 16-30 August including bank holiday weekendBritish Airways cabin crew will strike for a further two weeks in August, including over the bank holiday weekend, in a long-running dispute over pay and staff sanctions.Crew in the lower-paid mixed fleet, working out of Heathrow on long and short-haul flights, are already in the middle of a lengthy walkout and will extend the strike to cover the period from Wednesday 16 A
  
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• Brexit is putting firms off giving pay rises, says Bank of England

  03-08-2017 13:13
  After voting to hold interest rates, Bank warns rising prices and weak wage growth will continue to squeeze living standardsBrexit uncertainties have discouraged some firms from awarding pay rises, the Bank of England has said, as it warned that rising prices and weak wage growth would continue to squeeze living standards this year.The Bank’s rate-setting committee voted by 6-2 to leave official borrowing costs at their all-time low of 0.25%, according to minutes from their meeting release
  
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• We could end the buy-to-leave scandal – if the political will was there | Polly Toynbee

  03-08-2017 13:11
  Property bought as an investment and deliberately left empty is exacerbating the UK’s housing crisis. But government is not powerlessEmpty property bought by investors to sit unused is a scandal the Guardian has exposed this week, finding 1,652 in the Grenfell borough of Kensington and Chelsea alone.Not long ago I interviewed a long-time upmarket estate agent in Knightsbridge, opposite Harrods, who told me she begged foreign buyers to agree to rent out their vacant properties, to no avail.
  
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• Financial markets reform 'vital to make UK high-investment economy' - Business Reporter

  03-08-2017 12:09
  Business Reporter
  Financial markets reform 'vital to make UK high-investment economy'
  Business Reporter
  Reform of financial markets is vital if the UK is to become a high-investment, high-productivity, high-wage economy, a report from a think tank has suggested.en meer »
  
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• Nissan dispute could go down as most vicious anti-union crusade in decades | Bernie Sanders

  03-08-2017 12:00
  Nissan’s efforts to stop workers from forming a union is an all-too-familiar story of how greedy corporations divide and conquer working people, writes Bernie SandersA few months before the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Dr Martin Luther King Jr wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail: “We know from painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”This week, thousands of courageous workers
  
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• LSE chief defends UK listing rule changes - Financial News (subscription)

  03-08-2017 10:54
  Financial News (subscription)
  LSE chief defends UK listing rule changes
  Financial News (subscription)
  London Stock Exchange's top executive has endorsed the right of the UK securities regulator to consider changing its rules, a move that could make it easier to woo the listing of oil giant Saudi Aramco. Xavier Rolet said: "I think it's a totally normal ...en meer »
  
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• The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed'

  03-08-2017 08:25
  Key players in the drama recall the day that sparked the first UK bank run in 140 years and heralded a global financial crisis The ninth of August 2007 was the first day of Mervyn King’s holiday. The governor of the Bank of England spent it at Lord’s cricket ground where he was interviewed by the former England cricket captain Michael Atherton. While Lord King was watching the cricket, the French bank BNP Paribas announced it was freezing the assets of hedge funds that were heavily e
  
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• Too much experience is a good thing: the rise of the midlife entrepreneur

  03-08-2017 08:00
  Research has found the over-50s are setting up businesses faster than any other age group, contributing £119bn to the economyIn 2016, my 30-year corporate career in human resources came to an end and, armed with my redundancy package, I started my own coaching business. Little did I know that I was becoming part of a bigger movement, where growing numbers of midlifers have become self-employed.Continue reading...
  
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• More Than sent me contradictory letters – and said I was six years old

  03-08-2017 08:00
  After giving my year of birth as 2010, it also said I’d been without car cover for two daysI received two letters on the same day from my car insurer More Than, both bearing the same date of eight days previously. One said my policy was cancelled; the other declared it would automatically renew. Both gave my date of birth as 11 November 2010, indicating that I was just six years old.Because the £709 premium had been taken from my account two days after the date on the letters, I assu
  
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• Do your fellow Brits a favour. Stop going on holiday | Simon Jenkins

  03-08-2017 08:00
  We’re addicted to travel, and the government is our pusher, tempting us into ever more hellish journeysI’m in a hurry. You’re in my way. They are bloody tourists. My journey is vital, yours discretionary and theirs absurdly unnecessary. Transport policy has always been the orchestration of selfishness. This coming week, travel to Europe’s most popular air destinations will apparently be hell. “Security” will mean hours of queues at immigration, thoug
  
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• Green & Black's new UK chocolate bar will be neither organic nor Fairtrade

  03-08-2017 07:01
  Velvet Edition dark chocolate will be made under alternative Cocoa Life ethical scheme, set up by brand’s parent, MondelēzGreen & Black’s is launching its first UK chocolate bar that is neither organic nor Fairtrade-certified.The move by the organic chocolate maker – owned by US food giant Mondelēz International, parent of Cadbury – is likely to further undermine the Fairtrade movement amid concerns about a proliferation of rival alternatives.Continue readin
  
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• Executive wages may have fallen, but the case for pay ratios is even stronger

  03-08-2017 07:01
  The government mustn’t be fooled by the lower salaries seen in 2016 and stick to its plan to make remuneration more transparent
  It’s amazing: the fat cats of the FTSE 100 survived on smaller helpings of cream last year. Chief executives saw their average pay decline from £5.4m to £4.5m in 2016, a drop of 17%, according to calculations by personnel body CIPD and the High Pay Centre. On a rough estimate, the bosses collected “only” 129 times the average earnings
  
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• Co-op ATM thieves to be sprayed with long-lasting traceable gel

  03-08-2017 07:01
  Invisible liquid deterrent being rolled out at 2,500 cash machines after pilot scheme cut ATM crime by nearly 100%An invisible traceable gel that stays on skin and clothes for years will be sprayed on anyone who tries to break into a Co-operative cash machine as part of a hi-tech initiative to combat ATM crime.The Co-op group has teamed up with forensic technology company SmartWater to roll out the deterrent. The gel was invented by former West Midlands police officer Phil Cleary and his charter
  
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• Air Canada near miss: picture shows how close planes came to crashing

  03-08-2017 03:52
  Pilots mistook the taxiway at San Francisco International Airport for the runway and flew their jet just 59 feet above waiting airlinersNewly released data and photos show how shockingly low an Air Canada jet was when it pulled up to avoid crashing into planes waiting on a San Francisco international airport taxiway last month.Continue reading...
  
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• Financial markets reform 'vital to make UK high-investment economy' - Belfast Telegraph

  03-08-2017 01:16
  Belfast Telegraph
  Financial markets reform 'vital to make UK high-investment economy'
  Belfast Telegraph
  Financial markets reform 'vital to make UK high-investment economy'. BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Reform of financial markets is vital if the UK is to become a high-investment, high-productivity, high-wage economy, a report from a think tank has suggested.
  
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• Pensions latest: Baby boomers expect to work past their state pension age

  03-08-2017 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  LARGE numbers of baby boomers expect to work past their state pension age, according to a report urging more "ageing-friendly" employment opportunities.
  
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• FTSE 100 chiefs earn 160 times the average wage, study reveals

  03-08-2017 01:01
  High Pay Centre report prompts calls for cuts in executive remuneration and shows female top bosses also face gender pay gapOrdinary employees would have to work for 160 years to earn the average remuneration of FTSE 100 chief executives in 2016, according to new research. The average take home pay for the bosses of Britain’s top stock market-listed companies was £4.5m last year, according to the High Pay Centre’s annual survey of top executive pay. This compares to Office for
  
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• Asda's annual profits fell nearly a fifth last year against rivals

  03-08-2017 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  ANNUAL profits at Asda fell by nearly a fifth last year after it was left trailing by its “big four” supermarket rivals and rapidly growing Lidl and Aldi.
  
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• Venezuelans lead UK firm that disputes Venezuela election - Financial Post

  03-08-2017 00:23
  Financial Post
  Venezuelans lead UK firm that disputes Venezuela election
  Financial Post
  The seats of pro-government lawmakers sit empty during a session of Venezuela's National Assembly in Caracas, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The president of Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly says the legislature will call for an ...en meer »
  
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