Alternative lending deals rocket 43 per cent amid M&A flurry March 14, 2015 Non-bank lending jumped last year, with 195 deals in the UK and Europe, up 43 per cent from a year earlier. Mergers and acquisitions activity drove around 51 per cent of the deals, overtaking refinancing, when considering deals since the tracker began at end of 2012. "With increased confidence in the markets and wider funding options, we [...]
Pensions shake-up: George Osborne mulls further change to annuity rules March 12, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne is considering including a further shake-up of pensions rules in his crucial pre-election Budget next week, to allow pensioners to sell their existing annuities for cash. From next month those over 55 years old will be able to cash in their pension pot instead of buying an annuity to be paid out [...]
Peer-to-peer needs its own Lending Isa: Anything else would fail consumers March 12, 2015 Politicians usually make decisions knowing that they can’t please all of the people all of the time. The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association’s recent survey of over 4,500 peer-to-peer (P2P) lending customers comes close to disproving that. Over 95 per cent of respondents support the chancellor’s commitment to include P2P lending within the Isa wrapper. It’s a [...]
Diary of a Crowdfunder: Crowdfunding the medicines of the future March 11, 2015 Venomtech’s Steve Trim explains why he’s looking to raise £350,000 on SyndicateRoom. While working as a drug discovery scientist at a pharmaceutical company in 2009, an idea was brewing in my mind concerning a problem I was facing. The problem was how to make new drugs to cure pain which had fewer side-effects and worked [...]
Budget 2015: Current pensioners could sell their annuities for cash under new rules March 11, 2015 Current pensioners might be able to sell their annuities for cash under new plans due to be discussed by senior government ministers on Friday. According to the FT, if the proposals go ahead retirees would be allowed to sell their annual income contracts to insurers on secondary markets. In return, they would receive a cash [...]
Here’s why chancellor George Osborne’s pensioner bond bonanza won’t translate into votes March 11, 2015 George Osborne's so-called "granny bond" scheme has been heavily criticised as a blatant bid for the older vote, however new research has shown the chancellor's expensive giveaway is unlikely to pay off for the Tories. Rate setters at the Bank of England have held the main interest rate at a record low 0.5 per cent [...]
Private equity executive Randy Work ordered to make £72m divorce payout to ex-wife Mandy Gray by top London court March 10, 2015 A former private equity exec has been ordered to pay his ex-wife £72m – much more than he'd been offering. Randy Work, a former exec at Lone Star, said his estranged wife Mandy Gray should receive just £5m ($7.5m) of his wealth. He said his £150m ($225m) pot was protected by a post-nuptial agreement originally signed in Texas. [...]
MPs want pensions watchdog to protect retirees from themselves March 9, 2015 Pensioners need a tough new regulator to protect them from making bad decisions with their savings, an influential group of MPs said today. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is not sufficiently focused on pensions, and so a new single regulator is needed, MPs on the Work and Pensions Select Committee said. They called for the next government [...]
Former Dyson boss Martin McCourt to advise VentureFounders March 9, 2015 Montagu Private Equity director and former chief executive of Dyson Martin McCourt will act as a senior advisor to VentureFounders – a UK-based equity crowdfunding platform. McCourt brings with him more than 35 years’ experience in manufacturing, design marketing having spent time at Mars, Duracell and Toshiba. He spent 15 years at Dyson. He is also [...]
Shoreditch meets the City: RBS, Lloyds and American Express challenge startups to create FinTech of the future March 9, 2015 Leading financial firms are laying down the gauntlet and challenging startups to come up with the next financial technologies of the future. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds and American Express are just three of the finance firms putting their weight behind the search to find digital innovations which will address areas such as [...]
