City Moves for 23 May – Who’s switching jobs at Together, Weightmans and Openfin? May 23, 2019 Today's City Moves includes Together, Weightmans and Openfin. Together Specialist lender Together, which has a loan book of more than £3.74bn, has hired banking heavyweight Simon Raine as an advisor to its board. Simon – who has more than 35 years’ experience in financial services – joins from Handelsbanken, where he helped to develop its [...]
TSB belatedly starts new era after finally leaving Lloyds computer systems behind April 23, 2018 High street challenger bank TSB will belatedly start a new era today as it finally completes a computer migration from its former owner, Lloyds Banking Group. Services for customers were limited over the weekend as the changeover happened. Some functionality is not due to work properly until the end of April, according to TSB’s website [...]
Extinction Rebellion protests: Climate change activists protest at Heathrow Airport April 19, 2019 Climate change demonstrators are protesting at Heathrow Airport this morning as thousands of holidaymakers prepare to fly off for the Easter bank holiday weekend. Eco-activist group Extinction Rebellion said 15 young demonstrators, aged under 17, were standing outside the airport with a banner reading “Are we the last generation?” Read more: Climate change activists denied [...]
The GKN break-up is a test for Melrose, don’t bank on a tax cut and Marc Bolland is not just any NED June 29, 2018 Vultures. Asset-strippers. Corporate predators. The board of Melrose has had these perjorative labels and more thrown at it in the months since its initial bid approach for GKN. This week’s approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States of the £8bn takeover removed the final obstacle to a deal that elicited greater [...]
House prices drastically outpacing wage growth in UK cities as Oxford named least affordable place to live February 2, 2019 House prices in UK cities are outpacing wage growth by 11 per cent, meaning home affordability is at its lowest level since 2007, according to new data from Lloyds Bank. The report reveals that the average price of a house in a city in Britain has risen from £180,548 in 2013 to its highest ever level of £248,233 [...]
Use your local post office or lose it to the long list of high street casualties April 30, 2019 Owning and operating a post office couldn’t be any harder. The ongoing high street decline and the difficult retail environment over the past 12 months have hit subpostmasters hard, and it has never been tougher to make ends meet. We recently conducted a national survey of our membership, and found that more than one in five [...]
Bank of England to publish new cyber standards by summer to protect financial system under “almost constant attack” April 9, 2018 Britain’s financial system is “under almost constant cyber attack” according to a top Bank of England official, with the regulator planning to introduce new standards for financial firms’ computer security. Sam Woods, a deputy governor at the Bank, said the the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which he heads, will publish new standards expected of firms. [...]
Samsonite shares slide after short seller accuses it of massaging earnings May 24, 2018 Shares in Hong Kong-listed Samsonite, the world’s largest luggage manufacturer, crashed today after a short seller alleged the business had “concealed slowing growth… massaged earnings and inflated margins”. Hedge fund Blue Orca Capital, which described the suitcase maker as having a “history of mediocrity”, said that it should be trading at a discount to its [...]
New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange buys Chicago Stock Exchange April 5, 2018 The owner of the New York Stock Exchange has agreed to acquire the Chicago Stock Exchange. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has agreed to buy the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) for a reported $70m (£50m), although the two sides did not disclose terms. The deal comes after a [...]
Direct Line share price falls after Beast from the East costs insurer its entire annual weather budget May 2, 2018 Direct Line today counted the cost of Britain’s icy winter and warned its top line had shrunk by five per cent in the first three months of 2018. Quarterly gross written premiums slumped from £810.3m to £769.9m. Direct Line operates its own and a host of other well-known brands, including Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag. [...]