Why Britain is a nation of bad sports investors December 3, 2025 Britain loves sport, but our approach to funding it is fundamentally flawed. We spend heavily on pitches, clubs and community programmes, yet much of that money vanishes into a black hole of short-term fixes. Simply put, we are bad sports investors because we treat funding as charity rather than a catalyst for growth. It’s not [...]
Record £60m day at Tattersalls December Mares Sale December 3, 2025 Sales totalling £60m saw the Tattersalls December Mares Sale break the European auction record for the highest grossing day of horse sales. Barnavara became the highest priced filly in the world this year when Sugar Whiskey Trading beat off rivals to realise a winning bid of 4.8m guineas (£5m), while Porta Fortuna was sold to [...]
The 68p lawsuit that threatened to upend the British bond market December 3, 2025 In 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority set out to modernise the bond market. A noble ambition. But as many seasoned City execs will tell you, noble ambitions from regulators don’t always work out how they were intended. The FCA proposed to introduce what’s known in industry jargon as a consolidated tape – a system which [...]
Whitehall was ‘shambolic’ in dealing with collapsed China spy case December 3, 2025 Whitehall officials presided over “shambolic” proceedings in the prosecution of two alleged Chinese spies, a report has suggested, with both government officials and prosecutors coming under fire over the collapse of the case. A report by parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy said the collapse of the prosecution against former parliamentary researcher Christopher [...]
HSBC taps KPMG veteran Brendan Nelson to chair banking giant December 3, 2025 Europe’s biggest lender, HSBC, has named a new chair following its tumultuous recruitment programme after the departure of Sir Mark Tucker. HSBC tapped KPMG veteran Brendan Nelson, who has also served on the boards of BP and Royal Bank of Scotland, as its new chair. Nelson joined the banking giant’s board in 2023 and has served [...]
City watchdog to lift motor finance complaints pause earlier than expected December 3, 2025 The City watchdog has lifted the cap on motor finance complaints following the landmark ruling from the Supreme Court over the summer. The Financial Conduct Authority said it would ditch the pause on complaints from 31 May 2026 – two months ahead of plan. In a letter sent to banking bosses, the FCA has also [...]
AI powers UK’s startup surge as founder numbers soar December 3, 2025 While Britain is trudging through another tax-heavy Budget, LinkedIn data has revealed signs of a founder boom, with AI doing much of the heavy lifting. As Rachel Reeves attempted to boost startup and scale-up appetite in her Budget, LinkedIn revealed that the number of UK professionals adding ‘founder’ to their profile has jumped 69 per [...]
‘Why I’ve spent £50m to take my company global’ December 3, 2025 The chief executive of a travel company has revealed why he has decided to spend £50m on acquiring a Canadian counterpart. Steve Byrne, who leads Manchester-based Travel Counsellors, told City PM how his firm’s first international deal to buy The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND) will help boost its growth on top of its planned [...]
FTSE 100 Live: HSBC names new chair; Bloomsbury and Google tie-up December 3, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City PM liveblog. Are we on the verge of another financial crisis? It’s quite the eerie question but it was one of many posed to the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey following the latest financial stability report on Tuesday. The head of the central Bank [...]
Sheffield Wednesday: Joint bid could win £30m fight for crisis-hit club December 3, 2025 A number of the six bidders for Sheffield Wednesday are considering joining forces as competition to buy the Championship club hots up. Administrator Begbies Traynor has set an initial deadline of this Friday to begin exclusive negotiations with a preferred bidder, but with a number of credible offers on the table that timeline is likely [...]
