Brewin Dolphin profits flow downstream May 19, 2016 Profits for wealth manager Brewin Dolphin have almost halved in the six months to the end of March, as less-than-ideal market conditions and a business restructuring took their toll. Profits before tax dropped to £21.5m, down 42.2 per cent from £37.2m for the same period the year before, although the earlier period included a one-off exceptional gain of £9.7m. [...]
Do you live in the UK’s luckiest postcode for lottery wins? (Spoiler – it’s in Greater London) May 19, 2016 People talk about postcode lotteries, but this is just ridiculous… Camelot, the company behind the National Lottery, has unveiled the UK's 10 luckiest postcodes – and it turns out the nation's biggest winners reside within the M25. According to the ranking, which shows wins of £50,000 or more per head of the population, the UK's [...]
Brexit worries are beginning to bite at Hargreaves Lansdown May 19, 2016 Investment giant Hargreaves Lansdown has said uncertainties over Brexit are hitting investors' confidence, as net inflows dipped. The figures Net inflows dipped to £2.3bn in the four months to the end of April, from £2.75bn in the same period last year. That said, assets under management rose to £60.3bn, from £58.8bn last year. And the number of active clients also rose, by 15 per [...]
P2P lending: Why the Lending Club fiasco won’t send us all back to the dark ages May 19, 2016 You'd be forgiven for thinking, following last week’s news that Lending Club’s chief executive Renaud Laplanche was stepping down amid allegations around loan sales and misconduct, that this is the end of P2P lending as we know it. Commentators have been quick to discredit the P2P sector, with online lenders labelled “banks in disguise”, up [...]
Lending Club fiasco: This is the company helping P2P platforms grow up with integrity May 19, 2016 The resignation of US giant Lending Club’s chief executive last Monday sent a icy wave of unease through the P2P lending industry. Writing in City PM last week, AltFi’s Rupert Taylor commented: “the failures at Lending Club justified robust action because they related to a discipline that is central to what distinguishes P2P from conventional [...]
Workplace pensions: In praise of the humble master trust May 18, 2016 I woke up this weekend to a series of vaguely apocalyptic headlines about workplace pensions, master trusts in particular. And today none other than the country's most revered pensioner, Her Majesty The Queen, has opined on the topic. Being managing director of Smart Pension, a provider of workplace pensions via our own secure master trust, I must speak [...]
Crowdfunding platform named UK’s most active investor in private companies May 18, 2016 A crowdfunding platform has been named as the UK’s most active investor in private companies by a new report. In the first quarter of 2016, Seedrs made 37 investment deals. It was followed in second place by fellow crowdfunder, Crowdcube, which was involved in 30 deals. The Business Growth Fund was the next most active, [...]
How Brexit will hit investment portfolios: What (little) we know so far May 18, 2016 The Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund both issued stark warnings last week about the EU referendum and the potential impact of Brexit. In a report, the IMF said that a Leave vote could have a “negative and substantial” long-run effect on UK output and incomes. Later, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde added [...]
Shareholders lambast Standard Life over excessive boadroom pay deals May 17, 2016 Standard Life faced a backlash from shareholders at its annual general meeting on Tuesday with 22 per cent of votes cast going against the investment group’s executive pay report. Other big companies caught up in a so-called shareholder spring in the past few weeks include BP, Smith & Nephew, Shire, Regus, Weir Group and Anglo American. [...]
Report slams “shocking” level of pension scheme investment in hedge funds May 17, 2016 A new report has condemned the "shocking" level of UK pension scheme investment in hedge funds. SCM Direct condemned the “shockingly poor transparency” around costs and holdings, saying that many members would be unaware of the extent of their hedge fund investments. Read more: Hedge fund boss Paul Marshall to make Brexit donation The research estimated [...]
