Financial news

• Bell Pottinger is a textbook example of how not to manage a crisis | Nils Pratley

  04-09-2017 20:57 via theguardian.com
  The City PR firm is in the reputation-enhancing game – but appears unable to protect its own nameBell Pottinger, in its handling of its own public relations disaster in South Africa, has provided a textbook example of how not to manage a crisis.At first the City PR outfit denied it had done anything wrong in its work for the Gupta family. When the facts suggested otherwise, and that Bell Pottinger had been running a poisonous campaign based on stoking racial division, the company fired a m
  
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• UK Review Spurs Warning On Financial Sanctions Reports - Law360 (subscription)

  04-09-2017 20:24
  UK Review Spurs Warning On Financial Sanctions Reports
  Law360 (subscription)
  Law360, London (September 4, 2017, 1:32 PM BST) -- The U.K. government launched its annual review of asset seizures on Monday, reminding lawyers they must report any suspicious transactions or clients with frozen assets to the new financial sanctions ...en meer »
  
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• Green spending could help rescue UK after debt crash | Letters

  04-09-2017 20:17 via theguardian.com
  A £50bn-a-year green infrastructure quantitative easing programme is feasible, say Prof Richard Murphy and Colin HinesZoe Williams is right: another credit crunch-induced “crash” is likely and the only affordable rescue package will be some form of quantitative easing (With Britain’s addition to debt, another crash is certain, 4 September). This time it must generate jobs for the “left behind” and others, rather than today’s beneficiaries – the pro
  
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• Bell Pottinger expelled from PR trade body after South Africa racism row

  04-09-2017 19:59 via theguardian.com
  PRCA bans agency from membership for five years after finding it was unethical and brought the industry into disreputeBell Pottinger, one of the City’s leading public relations agencies, has been expelled from the industry’s trade association after an investigation found its secret campaign to stir up racial tensions in South Africa to be the worst breach of ethics in its history. The Public Relations and Communications Association said Bell Pottinger was unethical and unprofessional
  
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• Value of classic cars and fine art plunges as photographs soar

  04-09-2017 18:54 via theguardian.com
  Fall in the value of vintage vehicles comes after years of demand that have made them a strong investment, says Coutts bankClassic cars and works of fine art tumbled in value in 2016, while photography and rare musical instruments emerged as the hottest collectors’ items, according to a leading private bank.The fall in the value of classic cars – down in price by 10.4% last year – comes after years of booming demand that has made them one of the best investments over the past d
  
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• London developer to allow rental tenants to pay deposits in bitcoin

  04-09-2017 18:03 via theguardian.com
  The Collective says there is international demand to accept cryptocurrency, and will take it for rent payments from autumnA London property developer is to allow its tenants to pay their deposits in bitcoin – the first time the virtual currency has been used in the UK residential homes market.Co-living pioneer The Collective has announced that prospective tenants can pay deposits from Monday in bitcoin. By the end of this year it will also accept rent payments in the cryptocurrency. This i
  
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• A New York City landmark – in pictures

  04-09-2017 13:30 via theguardian.com
  A property-and-a-half – literally, according to the house number – situated in the famous West Village Continue reading...
  
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• Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world – podcast

  04-09-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The word has become a rhetorical weapon, but it properly names the reigning ideology of our era – one that venerates the logic of the market and strips away the things that make us human• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast &Sticherand join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...
  
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• Can I buy a house for my mum to live in rent-free?

  04-09-2017 11:26 via theguardian.com
  I’m doing well financially while she is struggling, but there seem to be hurdles regarding close relativesQ My mum is 52 and lives on her own on a low income in the north of England. I rent and work in London and am fortunate enough to be on a fairly good income. My mum, however, is struggling, so two years ago I started covering her mortgage payments. She has approximately £90,000 equity in her home and an outstanding mortgage of £50,000. She earns only £18,000 a year.Gi
  
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• U.K. Seeks Tougher Laws on Corporate Financial Crime - Bloomberg - Bloomberg

  04-09-2017 11:04
  U.K. Seeks Tougher Laws on Corporate Financial Crime - Bloomberg
  Bloomberg
  A proposal to toughen U.K. laws to make it easier to hold companies accountable for financial crime is still under consideration by the government after years of ...en meer »
  
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• UK Seeks Tougher Laws on Corporate Financial Crime - Bloomberg

  04-09-2017 11:04
  UK Seeks Tougher Laws on Corporate Financial Crime
  Bloomberg
  A proposal to toughen U.K. laws to make it easier to hold companies accountable for financial crime is still under consideration by the government after years of back and forth, according to a speech from the solicitor general. "The weaknesses in our ...en meer »
  
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• The UK's top 200 law firms have seen revenues jump 73% since the financial crisis - Business Insider

  04-09-2017 11:02
  Business Insider
  The UK's top 200 law firms have seen revenues jump 73% since the financial crisis
  Business Insider
  Allen and Overy Bishop's Square Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy is one of the best performing firms of the decade. Flickr CC/Stewart Morris. LONDON – Top UK law firms have seen revenues jump in the decade since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a ...en meer »
  
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• Why Provident Financial plc's woes could help you retire early - AOL UK

  04-09-2017 10:24
  AOL UK
  Why Provident Financial plc's woes could help you retire early
  AOL UK
  Like it or not, it's hard to question doorstep lending's status as a lucrative and resilient business model. It is, after all, what allowed the now-beleaguered ProvidentFinancial(LSE: PFG) to register a profit every single year since listing on the ...en meer »
  
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• UK consumers' concerns about inflation 'are highest in three and a half years'

  04-09-2017 08:14 via theguardian.com
  Survey by Lloyds Bank finds people’s confidence in Britain’s financial situation has worsened amid rising pricesWorries about rising inflation among UK consumers are at their greatest in three and a half years, while people’s confidence in Britain’s financial situation has worsened, according to a survey.A monthly poll by Lloyds Bank found that 65% of people felt negative about levels of inflation in July, up from 60% in June and the highest level since January 2014. Cont
  
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• For ‘instant’ access read ‘no’ access to Ulster Bank

  04-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I need a card reader to access my account online but it’s impossible to get oneI signed up to Ulster Bank’s market-leading 1.25% instant access savings account to deposit a large sum to pay for building work. Six weeks on and I still haven’t received the card reader – promised within two weeks – which I need to operate the account online.After endless calls the bank said I should write in to request a withdrawal of cash manually. I took a letter to my local NatWest
  
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• Bright idea: the startup making cycling safer

  04-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Blaze founder Emily Brooke has raised £1m investment for her Laserlight, exports to 65 countries, and picked up an MBE this year Emily Brooke speaks fast. Make that very fast. The 31-year-old product designer and entrepreneur who was still a student when she came up with her pioneering laser bike light, Laserlight, sounds like a woman in a hurry. In truth she has a fair bit to do. She is in the midst of designing a technological “brain” to control a laser, LED lights, Bluetooth
  
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• We’re addicted to debt and headed for a crash. It could be worse than 2007 | Zoe Williams

  04-09-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Ten years ago the culprit was sub-prime mortgages. Personal credit is out of control in Britain now. We seem to have learned absolutely nothingWhen Provident Financial lost £1.7bn in share value a little over a week ago, a handful of people asked whether this was a Northern Rock moment. The Provident extends high-interest loans to low-income people, and as such could be seen as a bellwether in the manner of a sub-prime mortgage company, the first to go under when debt becomes unb
  
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• McDonald's workers to go on strike in Britain for first time

  04-09-2017 06:27 via theguardian.com
  Staff in Cambridge and Crayford branches to protest over low wages and zero-hours contracts in action backed by CorbynMcDonald’s faces its first strike since it opened in the UK in 1974, as well as protests by unions and the public at several restaurants over pay and working conditions.
  About 40 staff will go on strike on Monday at two restaurants in Cambridge and Crayford, south-east London, after a ballot in favour of industrial action amid concerns over low wages and the use of zero-hou
  
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• Debt mess leaves innocent bystander struggling with system

  04-09-2017 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  IF YOU find yourself the innocent one caught between disputing parties, be prepared – however well intentioned you might be you could still end up the biggest loser.
  
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