Finance

More than one million of the new plastic £10 banknotes celebrating author Jane Austen have entered circulation. The new tenner is the first Bank of England note with a tactile feature to help blind and partially-sighted users. People queue outside the Bank of England in the City of London this morning as they wait to exchange old ten pound notes for the new ones. The tactile feature is a series of raised dots in the top left-hand corner of the...

You would think the banking industry would learn but sadly it appears not, according to a new report. The Adam Smith Institute, a leading think-tank, have said that the banking sector is an “accident waiting to happen.” The report has been published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Northern Rock crisis, that led to a run on the bank. This new report, which was authored by Kevin Dowd, Finance and Economics Professor at Durham University, was scathing on...

The price of a pint of beer is about to shoot up, according to the world's biggest beer company. Jason Warner, who is AB InBev's president for northern Europe, has warned that rising inflation means that pints in Britain are about to become more expensive. Headline consumer price inflation jumped from 2.6 per cent to 2.9 per cent last month, while the core rate rose from 2.4 per cent to 2.7 per cent. The Bank is currently predicting that CPI will...

With MiFID II soon to be put into practice, it’s more important than ever for Financial Institutions to understand what the MiFID is, and what is required of them to follow their regulations. One of the biggest areas for confusion is trade and transaction reporting. Both fairly similar, the confusion is understandable but it is simply to understand the difference. Making a FinTech investment can aid you in gaining the correct technology to make this easier, but we’ve looked deeper...

There is no doubt about it, unsecured loans are disputed and there is an obvious reason for that: the high interest rates Should these loans be banned or is it appropriate for the general public to have access to this facility? It's a difficult question to answer as there are both pros and cons regarding the matter. These loans are often very expensive due to the high interest rates, which is the main problem. Many customers experiencing difficulties when the time...

Speculation that the pound is set to reach parity with the Euro is rife after construction PMI data highlights Brexit’s negative impact on the economy. Following a week of heightened tensions over the North Korean missile aggression and stalled Brexit negotiations sterling took yet another battering at the start of the month as Construction PMI data reveals weak economic growth and a new BBC survey finds an interest rate rise from the BoE is unlikely until 2019. Commenting on the results Paresh Davdra, CEO...

Anyone heading abroad for some last-minute sun will be disappointed to hear that the pound has fallen to a new eight year low against the euro due to global instability. Britain's currency tumbled to 1.075 against the euro before picking up to around 1.079 on Wednesday, as the third round of Brexit talks between Britain's David Davis and Michel Barnier begin. With the uncertainty surrounding Brexit likely to persist for some time, investors will continue to view the euro as...

Bitcoin has gained much media attention over recent months. The original cryptocurrency brand has come a long way in less than a decade. Launching at a price of just six cents, the electronic asset is now worth more than $3500 per token. Earlier this month, Bitcoin touched new highs of over $4000. With the current crypto mania well under way, many new potential investors and speculators are now taking to this virtual currency in a desperate search for yield. This...

For some people, investing just isn't exciting enough. They love watching their money grow and knowing that they're providing for their future plans, but the actual tools they use for investment just feel a little bland. A fund is a fund, a bond is a bond. Some investors just need an instrument with some personality. The reason so many people feel this way is that they often don't understand that they can actually meet that goal. They can earn a...