Financial news

• Ready players? Not if the game is young men doing real jobs

  09-04-2018 19:24 via theguardian.com
  A new IMF report shows some stark gender trends in European and US workforce, including one that follows virtual reality in a new Spielberg film
  In Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s latest blockbuster, much of the population of a desolate future America have abandoned the world of work for the virtual reality of gaming in a software program called the Oasis. A report from the International Monetary Fund on Monday suggests it’s perhaps not such a fanciful future after all.The rathe
  
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• FCA sets aside £30m to smooth out Brexit process for City banks

  09-04-2018 18:55 via theguardian.com
  Financial services watchdog to deprioritise non-critical projects in preparation for disruption when Britain leaves the EUThe City watchdog has set aside £30m to deal with Brexit this year and has admitted it will need to scale back or delay some of its regular work to prepare for Britain leaving the EU in 2019. Outlining plans to significantly increase its spending on Brexit to help smooth out the process for City banks and insurers, the Financial Conduct Authority said it would drop some
  
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• More migrant workers needed to offset ageing population, says IMF

  09-04-2018 18:27 via theguardian.com
  Fund’s report advises advanced economies against greater controls on migrationThe International Monetary Fund has said advanced economies such as Britain, the US and Japan risk being overwhelmed by their ageing populations, and calls on them to throw open their borders to more migrant workers in response. Within the next few decades, working-age adults will need to support double the number of elderly people than they do now, putting immense pressure on welfare systems and wiping out as mu
  
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• Russian firms and rouble hit heavily by Trump sanctions

  09-04-2018 18:19 via theguardian.com
  Rouble suffers biggest daily fall for over three years and shares in Oleg Deripaska’s firms slumpThe Trump administration’s new sanctions on Russian oligarchs and top government officials began to bite on Monday as the rouble suffered its biggest daily fall in more than three years, the main Russian stock index slumped and investors dumped shares in businesses controlled by Oleg Deripaska. Russia’s currency briefly dipped more than 4% before recovering slightly to trade at 60.4
  
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• WPP's Martin Sorrell could know his fate as soon as next week

  09-04-2018 16:07 via theguardian.com
  Firm moves swiftly to complete investigation into misconduct by its chief executiveSir Martin Sorrell’s fate could be known as soon as next week as WPP moves swiftly to complete the investigation into allegations of personal misconduct against its chief executive.Sorrell, who cut a rare holiday short to return to WPP’s headquarters in Mayfair’s Farm Street, central London, to deal with the allegations, said last week he expected the investigation to be “completed shortly&
  
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• Colourful roots: how Bleach London went from one sink to wholesaler

  09-04-2018 12:16 via theguardian.com
  How the hip hair brand sought alternative financing to expandTake a peek at Bleach London’s Instagram feed and a glut of colour greets your eye – pools of purple dye, rainbow braids and red glitter eyeshadow keep you scrolling. The hair and beauty brand, which began within a nail bar in Dalston, east London, back in 2010, now has three salons across the capital, and its hair and makeup lines are sold across the UK.Friends Alex Brownsell and Samantha Campbell (nee Teasdale) are the fo
  
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• New initiative to address ticketing barriers for deaf and disabled fans

  09-04-2018 11:17
  Attitude Is Everything’s fourth annual state of access report highlights the challenges deaf and disabled fans face when purchasing tickets for live music eventsMore than 80% of deaf and disabled music fans have experienced problems when booking tickets to live music events, with one in 10 considering legal action over the difficulty of accessing concerts and festivals.The fourth annual report by Attitude Is Everything, a charity dedicated to improving deaf and disabled people’s acce
  
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• Video lame: has Hollywood’s warped relationship with gaming gone too far?

  09-04-2018 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Studios are keener than ever to take a cut from this multibillion-dollar industry – but even the best games rarely inspire good filmsAs recent efforts – Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed, Warcraft – continue to show, video games rarely make great movies. If ever. Dwayne Johnson’s new epic Rampage might change all this, just as giant, genetically modified wolves might fly, but the source material was hardly that compelling to start with, partly because it was already a m
  
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• UK house prices post biggest monthly increase for six months

  09-04-2018 10:52
  Halifax house price figures show 1.5% rise in March, but it warns that changes could be volatileHouse prices strengthened in March to post their biggest monthly gain since August, according to Halifax, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender.
  The average price of a UK home rose 1.5% in March to hit £227,871, the highest recorded price. Prices in the three months to March were 2.7% higher than a year earlier, up from the 1.8% annual growth recorded in February.Continue reading...
  
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• The gender pay gap isn't the half of it: our economy runs on women's unpaid work | Sandi Toksvig

  09-04-2018 08:59 via theguardian.com
  I call it our ‘grossly undervalued domestic product’: the caring, support and childcare women do without seeing a penny. It’s time we recognised itI recently delivered the annual Adam Smith lecture in Kirkcaldy, Fife. It was the first time a woman had been trusted to give this economics lecture all by herself. As a marvellous bagpiper led the way, it struck me that this might be my glass cliff moment. Because, let’s face it, I’m not an obvious choice for such a task
  
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• Housing association charges 100% fees for selling a shared-ownership flat

  09-04-2018 08:00
  My daughter owns 40% of the flat so surely her association should charge her fees based on her share?Q Two years ago, my daughter and her partner bought a 40% share in a shared-ownership housing association flat in Hackney, east London. Her company is relocating so they are having to sell their share. Buying this way was their only option in London to get on the property ladder as is the case with many young people.My question relates to the marketing costs the housing association is allowed to
  
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• BT won’t stop cancelling our broadband contract

  09-04-2018 08:00
  We’ve assured them we still want it, but it’s happened three timesSince we started our broadband with BT in June 2017, they have three times cancelled our service despite us assuring them we still wanted it. And each time they did this, they tried to bill us for the remaining amount of our contracts. This first started when neighbours moved in next door and we started receiving “somebody wants to take over your line” messages. After this, we were set up on an 18-month con
  
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• For British bosses a bigger headache than Brexit is emerging

  09-04-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  After the EU transition deal UK firms now rank weak domestic demand as a more pressing problem, says DeloitteBrexit has fallen into second place as the most significant risk facing company bosses for the first time since the EU referendum, as weak domestic growth saps demand for their goods and services. According to a Deloitte survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) at some of the UK’s biggest businesses, companies are now less pessimistic about Brexit after ministers agreed the terms o
  
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