We need to defuse our pensions timebomb – The City View September 24, 2015 The current debate over Europe’s migration crisis centres on how many refugees each country “can afford to absorb”. The implication is that each person who migrates into an area brings an economic cost, and that allowing them in is an act of charity. But there are many economists who argue that this just [...]
Alliance Trust appoints fund management veterans Chris Samuel and Karl Sternberg as it continues to reassure shareholders September 24, 2015 Alliance Trust has appointed two veteran managers to its board as it seeks to reassure investors yet again. Ignis Asset Management's former chief executive Chris Samuel and Oxford Investment Partners' co-founder Karl Sternberg are joining the board of the investment trust with immediate effect. "Both appointments have been made following consultation with our largest shareholders", [...]
Breaking down vertical banking silos: Our outdated payments industry should look to Apple and BMW’s supply chains September 24, 2015 We depend on payments as the underpinning fabric of almost every aspect of cross border commerce. Yet the payments industry is still fundamentally built on a model which suited the needs of a world circa fifty years ago, rather than the dynamic, agile, hyper-connected world of 2015. The problem behind this is that individual financial [...]
London can come out on top in the era of job-killing robots September 23, 2015 Scary, scary robots. If you believe the hype, robots are coming for your job, your society and everything you hold dear. A widely publicised report argued that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK could be destroyed by automation and computerisation (which is what “robots” have come to mean in the shorthand of [...]
Why the future of fintech (and financial services) is collaborative September 22, 2015 The UK is fast becoming one of the world’s leading fintech centres. So it was fitting that, last week, investors, consultants, multinationals, startups and entrepreneurs gathered in London’s East End for FinTech Week 2015: an event where attendees could share ideas, network and, most importantly, do business together. The expo focused on how to [...]
The shared economy and peer-to-peer payments are transforming business lending and P2P is here to stay September 22, 2015 Anyone who has kept an eye on the financial services landscape over the past decade will have noticed that digital technology is transforming and disrupting many traditional product markets. The latest innovation is from PayPal, an early pioneer in online payments, who are offering a smartphone app to help get your money back if you've [...]
The Rosebery founder Simon Davis on scrapheaps, sewing, MOTs and Angelina Jolie September 20, 2015 Did you know that Jeff Bezos used to photograph everyone he met so he wouldn't forget who they were? Neither did I, but when Simon Davis interviewed him, Amazon was still a startup – and it's just one of several gems Davis, founder of the London Restaurant Festival (LRF), The Rosebery and former journalist, wheels [...]
UK house prices: The bespoke mortgage challenge for entrepreneurs when buying a house – Investec Comment September 20, 2015 Buying a house can be tricky at the best of times, but if you own your own business, are self-employed, or work in private equity, the process can be more difficult still. Why? The first stumbling block is income. Some lenders' application processes may be fairly black and white: you either meet the criteria [...]
Fintech is booming – but where are the insurance tech startups? September 17, 2015 As a technology investor, I spend my days scouring Europe in search of the next big thing. London’s fintech scene has been a profitable hunting ground of late. With the UK fintech industry generating $20bn in revenue annually, it is not surprising that $5.4bn has been invested in British fintech companies since 2010. [...]
London FinTech investment in 2015 has already surpassed last year’s total… and it’s only September September 17, 2015 The cash being pumped into London's financial technology businesses has already surpassed the entire amount invested 2014 as the capital cements its status as the FinTech capital of the world. It's been the most successful year yet for FinTech, netting $554m (£357m) of venture capital investment so far this year, compared to total investment of [...]
