Pensioner bonds: George Osborne heralds over £1bn sold to over-65s as a “huge success” January 17, 2015 More than 100,000 savvy silver-haired savers have jumped at the chance to buy the government's new pensioner bonds, netting the Treasury more than £1bn in just two days. Chancellor George Osborne called it "the biggest opening sales of any retail financial product in Britain's modern history” after the one and three-year bonds went on sale [...]
Pensioner bond website crashes due to demand January 15, 2015 THE CHANCELLOR has proclaimed the launch of £10bn worth of guaranteed growth bonds for over 65s as a “huge success”. A rush of interested investors caused the National Savings and Investments (NSI) website to crash after the bonds were launched yesterday morning. The bonds offer market leading rates, at 2.8 per cent interest over one year or [...]
Pensioner bonds go on sale with up to 4 per cent interest rate for over-65s January 15, 2015 Excited savers clamoured for "granny bonds" which went on sale today, but the stellar demand has caused the National Savings and Investments website to crash. "We are currently experiencing high demand for our 65+ Guaranteed Growth Bonds – customers may have to wait longer than normal to contact us," a spokesman for NS&I told the BBC. "We're [...]
Growth and investment: The unintended victims of financial crime regulation February 26, 2015 It is perhaps the starkest example of the unintended consequences of regulatory reform that it is now so difficult to open a bank account at any UK financial institution, particularly for foreign investors. What began as a challenge to money launderers is now a palpable threat to the City’s position as one of the world’s [...]
Kiev’s tough finance chief Natalie Jaresko puts her case to the world March 24, 2015 “I am facing very different challenges to those he faces,” says the Ukrainian finance minister hours after meeting George Osborne, the UK chancellor. Natalie Jaresko is in the middle of a whistlestop tour of London and New York, during which she hopes to put her case to her war-torn country’s creditors and also to enlist [...]
Ed Miliband doesn’t get incentives – and it could cost his party Scotland March 10, 2015 Ed Miliband has long had a problem with voters not perceiving him as “normal”. His famous struggle with a bacon sandwich in some ways says it all. But at a much more important level, he seems to have little or no empathy with one of the most fundamental of human motivations. The most profound insight [...]
How employers can deal with office lovebirds February 15, 2015 In some instances, you can require that staff disclose a relationship. Do you know how many people in your office have had an in-house romance? Valentine’s Day might have been and gone, but trysts are a staple of the UK workplace. According to research carried out by the Institute of Leadership and Management, 41 per [...]
Unite picks Pinsent for pensions January 5, 2015 UNITE the Union, the largest trade union in the UK and Ireland, has appointed international law firm Pinsent Masons as the sole adviser on its £800m Unite Pension Scheme for staff and officers, it emerged yesterday. The pension pot recently doubled in size following the recent merger of the former TGWU and Amicus union pension [...]
Best of the Brokers for 01 May 2014 April 30, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com INTERNATIONAL PERSONAL FINANCE Numis recommends that investors buy shares in the loans company and has increased the target price from 644p to 675p. The broker has hiked its earnings per share forecasts to reflect IPF’s dominance of the home credit market and a [...]
Retired workers should be allowed to sell their pensions to the highest bidder, says minister Steve Webb January 4, 2015 Retirees may soon get the right to sell off their savings for a lump sum, according to pensions minister Steve Webb. Liberal Democrat Webb said that he wanted to go further than the reforms outlined by George Osborne at the last budget, which, from this April, allow workers to trade their pension savings for [...]