Disposing of Royal Bank of Scotland: It’s the only way the chancellor can cut borrowing April 22, 2016 Whilst George Osborne was sipping some Chateau Lynch Bages 2000 as HM Government was entertaining President Obama, he surely must have been ruminating as to how he can get the UK'S borrowing requirement down from the unacceptable level of 83.5 per cent of GDP. He has tried desperately hard in recent years to achieve this goal, [...]
City Moves for 15 April 2016 | Who’s switching jobs April 15, 2016 Bibby Line Group Bibby Line Group has appointed Gaurav Batra as chairman. Gaurav is currently strategy director and also chairs Garic Ltd, Bibby’s plant hire subsidiary. He joined the group in 2013, having previously worked at Virgin Group in corporate development and strategy. McKay Securities Real estate investment trust McKay Securities has announced that Richard Grainger [...]
RBS is axing 600 jobs and shuttering 32 NatWest branches, according to the Unite union April 14, 2016 Royal Bank of Scotland has told staff it will be making 600 job cuts and closing 32 branches in its NatWest subsidiary, according to the Unite union. The closures are broken down to 18 branch closures in the bank's northern region, and up to 217 job losses. A total of 220 branches will change their opening hours. In the Midlands [...]
Barclays customers can now use Apple Pay… finally April 5, 2016 It's been a long old wait, but Barclays has finally jumped on board the Apple Pay bandwagon. Barclays is the last of the major banks to support Apple Pay in the UK, letting customers pay with just the swipe of their iPhone or Apple Watch. “Since we introduced contactless to the UK in 2007, it’s [...]
Pets Corner makes new furry friends after buying rival chain Pampurred Pets for £6m April 4, 2016 Pets Corner, the high street retailer dedicated to furry and scaly critters, has bought rival business PamPurred Pets for £6m to create the UK's second biggest pet chain. The Sussex-based company was founded by husband and wife team Mark and Sandra Richmond in 1968 and has since grown to 110 stores across the UK. The acquisition will add another [...]
Will Greenwood: Joe Marler “gypsy boy” affair should have been dealt with in a weekend by World Rugby and Six Nations March 31, 2016 World Cup winner Will Greenwood has called for rugby’s governing bodies to reassess their disciplinary procedures to avoid a repeat of England prop Joe Marler’s “gypsy boy” saga. Former England centre Greenwood believes World Rugby and Six Nations organisers should have delivered a coherent message over Marler’s contentious comment towards Wales prop Samson Lee earlier [...]
City Moves for 22 February 2016 | Who’s switching jobs February 22, 2016 Dechert Andrew Hood has joined the law firm as a senior director in its international trade and government regulation practice. Hood most recently served as legal adviser to the Prime Minister. Prior to this, he held positions as head of international and EU law at the Attorney General’s Office, legal adviser and senior policy officer [...]
Kirsh’s Tower 42 shoots up the City skyscraper rankings after becoming the tallest UK building with 4G February 9, 2016 Property moguls love nothing more than one-upping each other with small victories, but one tycoon can celebrate a first after bringing 4G phone signal to one of London's older skyscrapers. South African real estate tycoon Nathan Kirsh must be feeling pretty smug after his own victory. Kirsh’s Tower 42, only the seventh tallest building in [...]
City Moves for 22 January 2016 | Who’s switching jobs January 22, 2016 RateSetter Marketplace lender RateSetter has appointed Paul Marston as head of SME lending and Angela Yotov as head of legal. Paul joins from Secure Trust Bank, a challenger bank, where he was managing director of the business and commercial division which provides funding for SMEs and property development loans. Prior to that he was a [...]
City Moves for 14 December 2015 | Who’s switching jobs December 13, 2015 MARKETFORM Robert Brown has joined specialist underwriting firm Marketform as global practice leader of its M&A Insurance operations, heading up a team specialist underwriters and lawyers who are responsible underwriting complex transactions to provide bespoke warranty and indemnity and tax insurance products. Robert has more than 20 years’ worth of underwriting experience and has previously [...]