Business analyst | Libyan Stamps

Business analyst Business insurance Profesional Service Project Management Sales Management Strategy Management

Brexit-focused Financial Services Bill gets first reading

The Financial Services Bill received its first reading in Parliament this week as the Government focuses on getting the financial services sector ready for Brexit.

The Financial Services Bill is designed to help ensure the UK maintains its “world-leading regulatory standards and remains open to international markets after the UK leaves the EU.”

It was announced in the Queen’s Speech in December 2019.

{loadposition hidden2}

The Bill has been welcomed by the Financial Conduct Authority which said it will help to maintain high standards and provide greater clarity to firms. It particularly welcomed the Bill’s provisions to amend the Benchmarks Regulation, which is intended to help manage and direct an orderly wind-down of critical benchmarks such as LIBOR. The regulator said it will continue its work with the Treasury during the Bill’s passage through Parliament.

PIMFA, the trade association for the wealth management and financial advice industry, also welcomed the

… Read the rest

Business Business analyst Business insurance International Business News Small Business Strategy Management

This startup wants to help you prepare for America’s next disaster

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.

There are few experiences more harrowing than an earthquake. Ask Dan Kessler. He obsesses about them.

Kessler is the chief executive of Harbor, a startup that aims to help Americans prepare—at least semi-calmly—for the next disaster, from how to pack a “go bag,” to how much water you should stockpile.

To be sure, there will be another disaster. That might not be good for your nerves, but makes for ideal timing for a disaster prep app. America is grappling with a pandemic, a financial crisis, a potentially contested presidential election, another historic hurricane season, and superpowered wildfires on the West Coast.

Harbor tackles two out of these—natural disasters and COVID-19—plus the usual ailments of modern life: car crashes and house fires. (Next on Kessler’s wish … Read the rest

Business Business analyst Enterpreneurship News Profesional Service Sales Management Strategy Management

Big Oil Loses Refining Crutch With Margins Crushed Last Quarter

(Bloomberg) — Six months on from crude’s era-defining price crash and Big Oil is suffering from whiplash.Prices may have stabilized around $40 a barrel as OPEC+ curbed supply, but as the coronavirus surges through Europe once again, the twin safety nets for majors in previous downturns — refining and trading — have come under severe pressure as consumers stay home.“Refining margins are absolutely terrible,” Patrick Pouyanne, Total SE’s Chief Executive Officer, said earlier this month. The French major, along with a raft of other oil companies and refiners, have warned investors that slumping margins will be a drag on profits. For some like Exxon Mobil Corp., it might even push them into the red.The third quarter will provide little respite to the supermajors with three out of the five expected to post losses. Trading, which brought the European firms a torrent of cash last quarter, is unlikely to save the … Read the rest

Business analyst Business insurance Profesional Service Project Management Sales Management Strategy Management

Editor’s Column: Financial Planning’s golden opportunity

It’s hard to find a silver lining in current Covid cloud but one of them may be a boost to recruiting the next generation of Financial Planners.

One adviser network, Openwork, has even gone as far this week as urging people working in insurance and banking facing redundancy to retrain as advisers and planners, offering the chance to achieve Chartered Financial Planner status.

This makes a lot of sense. We’ve seen huge cutbacks in the banks’ branch networks in recent years with the inevitable loss of jobs. Some insurance companies

too are increasing automation and shedding staff.

{loadposition hidden2}

At the same time the Financial Planning sector has been bereft of recruits and the sector has struggled to grow as a results. A bad press in the past has

deterred bright graduates from considering Financial Planning.

That’s changing. Our Financial Planning Jobs service, for example, has seen a surge in

… Read the rest

Business Business analyst Business insurance International Business News Small Business Strategy Management

How to hold the corporate world accountable

On Tuesday, the Justice Department and 11 U.S. states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging, “For the sake of American consumers, advertisers, and all companies…the time has come to stop Google’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition.”

Yet, despite widespread, bipartisan censure, Google has been celebrated as a leader in “stakeholder capitalism”; its parent company, Alphabet, ranks fifth out of over 900 companies in JUST Capital’s recently released list of businesses that excel in addressing the needs of workers, consumers, communities, and the environment. Why the reputational disconnect?

The answer is the key challenge of the stakeholder capitalism movement: All too often, corporate goodness cannot be adequately measured and assessed.

But fortunately, that is starting to change.

There is increasing recognition that we need to depart from the past 50 years of “shareholder capitalism,” but less consensus on what that actually means. Influential actors such as the … Read the rest

Business Business analyst Enterpreneurship News Profesional Service Sales Management Strategy Management

Bitcoin Resurgence Leaves Institutional Acceptance Unanswered

(Bloomberg) — The Bitcoin hype machine is back in overdrive.The digital token spiked above $13,000 this week for the first time in over a year, touching off Twitter dance parties, new sky-high predictions and even some tattoo flashing. Back are proclamations that crypto is the currency of the future, that the dollar’s days are numbered and blockchain will reorder the financial universe.A mid-week announcement that PayPal Holdings Inc. will allow transactions in crypto set off the craze, adding about $19 billion to Bitcoin’s value over the following two days. It was the latest in a series of mainstream acknowledgments that digital tokens exist and clients want to trade in them. Wall Street stalwarts like Fidelity Investments have crypto investment products and two public companies — Square Inc. and MicroStrategy Inc. — recently said they bought Bitcoin.But for all the hype, there’s little evidence that Bitcoin and its digital brethren are … Read the rest

Business analyst Business insurance Profesional Service Project Management Sales Management Strategy Management

Fidelity buys LGIM’s £5.8bn personal investing arm

Fidelity has acquired Legal & General Investment Management’s UK Personal Investing business which manages £5.8bn in assets for 300,000 clients.

The company says the deal, for an undisclosed sum, will double the number of D2C customers using Fidelity’s expanding Personal Investing business.

Fidelity Personal Investing currently has 280,000 customers with £20.3bn assets under management.

The transaction is set to be completed in the next 12 months and follows Fidelity’s recent acquisition of Cavendish Online.

{loadposition hidden2}

Fidelity says on transfer, customers will pay the “same or less” than they do with LGIM.

As Fidelity Personal Investing clients they will get access to an investment and pension platform which includes 3,000 funds, shares, investment trusts and exchange-traded funds which can be held in an ISA, SIPP or Investment Account.

The LGIM clients can also access Fidelity’s online guidance services, investment tools and other services.

Stuart Welch, global head of personal investing

… Read the rest

Business Business analyst Business insurance International Business News Small Business Strategy Management

Last night’s debate didn’t change a thing: Biden is still a 2-1 favorite to win, betting market says

Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.

Last night’s debate in Nashville didn’t change the odds of Joe Biden beating Donald Trump to win the presidency on November 3rd.

That’s the verdict from one of the most closely watched political betting markets. Smarkets, a U.K.-based gambling company that allows wagers on political contests as well as sporting events, says Biden’s chances of winning remain unchanged at 67%, while Trump has a 33% chance of retaining the presidency.

The Electoral College forecast also wasn’t shifted by the final presidential debate of the 2020 campaign, with state-by-state wagers implying a 317-221 Electoral College victory for Biden, according to Smarkets.

There was a slight move in Biden’s favor in some key battleground states, according to Smarkets’ betting. The Democrat’s odds of winning Florida ticked up slightly … Read the rest

Business Business analyst Enterpreneurship News Profesional Service Sales Management Strategy Management

Mattel Soars After Toy Demand Helps Earnings Smash Estimates

(Bloomberg) — Mattel Inc. rose as much as 11% in early trading Friday after third-quarter results shattered expectations, lifted by consumers snapping up Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels toys during the pandemic.Revenue rose 10% to $1.63 billion in the period, Mattel said on Thursday, topping analysts’ predictions of $1.46 billion. Adjusted profit was 95 cents a share, beating estimates of 39 cents, as the company continued to work on cutting costs.Mattel has addressed inventory problems posed by the coronavirus and expects a stronger-than-normal holiday buying season, Chief Executive Officer Ynon Kreiz said in an interview. The company said that inventories at retail outlets were lower than at the same time last year, and they’re working together to avoid product shortages.The lack of new movie franchises tied to competing toy brands may provide a boost to Mattel, which relies on well-known products such as Barbie, Uno and Pictionary. The company’s doll … Read the rest

Business analyst Business insurance Profesional Service Project Management Sales Management Strategy Management

LCF pay-outs reach £38.1m as claims process drags on

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has paid out just over £38.1m in compensation to LCF customers, a substantial increase from the £20m paid out by August when the body increased the team allocated to the case by nearly 80%.

In its latest update, the body revealed that it has worked with Capita to create an artificial intelligence (AI) approach to help review 700,000 telephone recordings. The accuracy of the AI was then checked manually by the team before making any claims decisions.

Without the use of AI, the body said it would not have been able to start paying claims until January 2021. It decided “this timescale was not acceptable given LCF customers had already been waiting many months for us to be able to confirm the outcome of their claim.”

{loadposition hidden2}

There has been criticism of the FSCS and FCA for a slow response to the LCF mini-bond

… Read the rest