All eyes on dividends: What to expect from Barclays and Natwest this week February 16, 2021 Barclays and Natwest will be the first of the major high street banks to report full year results this week. It has been a difficult 12 months with Brexit weighing on sentiment in addition to the fallout from the pandemic. All eyes will be on dividend payments after the Prudential Regulation Authority effectively banned payouts [...]
London and UK trade bodies slammed for talks with Chinese tech linked to Uighur surveillance February 12, 2021 City Hall and trade department slammed for talks to Chinese firm linked to Uighur Muslim surviellance
Senior politicians urge HSBC to unfreeze accounts of Hong Kong activist Ted Hui February 8, 2021 HSBC has drawn criticism from a group of senior politicians over its decision to freeze the bank account of Ted Hui, prominent pro-democracy activist based in Hong Kong. A group consisting of more than 50 politicians, including former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, have written to HSBC chairman Mark Tucker demanding he unfreeze the accounts [...]
UK MPs call for Wimbledon to cut ties with HSBC and Standard Chartered February 4, 2021 A group of UK MPs and peers have demanded asset management giant BlackRock and the Wimbledon tennis tournament to cut ties with HSBC and Standard Chartered over their support for Beijing’s freedom of speech crackdown in Hong Kong. The nine parliamentarians also called on the World Rugby Sevens and the British Open tournaments to refuse further [...]
Shortlist announced for London’s top environmental awards January 29, 2021 The City of London Corporation has revealed the 10 Square Mile businesses shortlisted in the capital’s top environmental gongs – the Clean City Awards. The scheme, now in its 26th year, rewards businesses leading the way in improving their environmental performance – be it by reducing plastic use, taking action to cut carbon emissions or by boosting recycling. [...]
Post-Brexit Special: Business leaders on the challenges of trading with the EU January 26, 2021 Since the start of the year, a raft of new requirements are making life increasingly difficult for UK businesses that trade with the EU. On the surface, frictionless trade should have continued, but as the UK is no longer part of the EU Single Market and Customs Union, companies have been faced with an increased [...]
Excl: Hong Kong activist Nathan Law slams firms ‘colluding’ with Beijing January 21, 2021 Western firms operating in China and Hong Kong are “compromising their integrity,” one of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy activists has told City A.M. Nathan Law, one of the leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests in the territory and now in exile in London, warned that “Beijing manipulates its economic power to conduct and expand [...]
Exclusive: City of London Corporation chief says ‘not our place’ to criticise China human rights abuses January 19, 2021 The City of London Corporation’s policy chief has said it is not the powerful local authority’s role to hold China to account for human rights abuses. Catherine McGuinness told City A.M. that she was “really not clear it’s our place” to publicly criticise the Chinese government for human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and that [...]
London needs offices to thrive to secure its global future January 15, 2021 Are cities dead? There are plenty who think so – but Britain should hope they’re wrong. “The history book has not yet been written for cities” is the rallying cry emanating from Government. Those were Rishi Sunak’s words, echoing the Prime Minister’s faith when he spoke with FTSE 250 leaders last week that, post-pandemic, we [...]
Singapore audit reform stresses need for UK action, IIA warns January 13, 2021 Recent changes to rules surrounding audit in Singapore have highlighted why action on audit reform in the UK is crucial, the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors has warned. CEO John Wood said reform of the UK’s audit sector was necessary to protect the UK’s leading reputation in corporate governance. The Singapore stock [...]