Is Facebook too powerful? April 26, 2018 Three hours and 27 minutes into Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before the Senate, senator Dan Sullivan pressed him on the question – is Facebook too powerful? It’s a sentiment reflected by the House of Lords here in the UK, which has called on the Competition and Markets Authority to launch a study into Google and Facebook’s [...]
Up in smoke: Tobacco firms feel burn of disruption July 22, 2019 Disruption, whether as a result of new technology, stricter regulations or changing consumer habits, is affecting all sectors of the global economy, as we discussed here. It’s the new normal and the question is no longer which areas are affected; the question now is to what extent they are affected. Read more: Stranger Things vs Mickey Mouse: How the media [...]
Lloyds Banking Group: Q1 results analysis May 7, 2019 By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After a stunning share price performance, do these 'hit and miss' results justify optimism? Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) investors, in need of a silver lining after an underwhelming earnings season from UK lenders, only have to look back 24 hours earlier to the surprise gift handed to the bank [...]
Vodafone third quarter revenue slips amid fierce sector competition January 25, 2019 Vodafone today said it maintains its full-year guidance despite a decline in revenues in the third quarter as the firm struggles with increasing competition in the telecoms sector. The FTSE 100 firm reported revenue of €11bn (£9.5bn), down by €0.8bn on the same period the year before. Read more: Vodafone and O2 eye sale of phone [...]
Taking the higher ground rent: How homeowners can stop themselves falling victim to dubious leasehold contracts May 28, 2019 Finally able to buy your first home, you skip away from the rat race that is the rental system, proudly boasting the much-revered title of “homeowner”. And yet, if you’ve bought a leasehold property, it might not be the picket-fenced dream that you’d bargained for. Millions of UK properties, typically flats, are sold as leasehold. This [...]
Five UK banks given Open Banking deadline extension by CMA December 19, 2017 Five UK banks have been given more time by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to comply with Open Banking regulations. Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC, Santander and Bank of Ireland appealed to the CMA for a delay to the January deadline. Open Banking is a new digital standard that aims to give [...]
Obscure fees could be eroding your pension – here’s what you should be paying June 19, 2019 If you’ve ever endeavoured to compare fees charged by pension providers, you’re probably sat wild-eyed, rocking yourself back and forth. Despite the push to rid the financial sector of opaque and confusing charging structures, it’s still incredibly difficult for consumers to compare the fees levied by pension providers. Not only can it be difficult to [...]
EU banking watchdog calls for fresh cryptoassets regulation January 10, 2019 New rules may be needed to stop existing regulation on cryptocurrencies and digital assets from getting too diverse across the European Union, the bloc's banking watchdog said yesterday. Cryptoassets such as bitcoin, ether and tokens created in initial coin offerings (ICOs) typically fall outside of the scope of EU financial legislation, which makes it hard to [...]
Law firm DWF raises £95m in first-ever main market legal listing March 11, 2019 Law firm DWF has today raised £95m in the first main market float for a law firm, valuing the business at £366m. DWF is by far the largest of the handful of law firms to have listed on the stock market and is the first firm with a large international footprint to have gone public. [...]
Serco shares jump to 14-month high as government awards decade-long asylum seeker housing contracts worth billions January 8, 2019 Outsourcers Serco and Mears have been tasked with providing a decades-worth of accommodation and support for asylum seekers across the UK, in a string of billion-pound contract awards. The 10-year contracts, worth £1.9bn for Serco and £1bn for Mears, bumped both companies’ share prices up around seven per cent today. Home Office minister Baroness Susan [...]