Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest bank in the US, was shut down by the country’s regulators last week, and we’ve now learned that HSBC has moved to buy the UK arm of the collapsed institution. Since the bank specialises in lending to technology companies, the rescue by HSBC will be a huge relief to …
It’s a term we’ve heard a lot recently, so let’s take a close look at what open banking actually is, and how many people know about it. Open banking means allowing third-party financial services providers, such as budgeting apps, to access a person’s banking information, like their payment history and previous transactions. These services have …
The Bank of England’s aim is for the country to have low and stable inflation – and it works to a target of two per cent. Changing interest rates are the Bank of England’s mechanism for achieving its inflation target, and in the current climate of high inflation, it believes raising rates is the right …
As the inflation crisis in the UK has deepened, the Bank of England has been forced to act decisively by hiking interest rates. In December 2021, interest rates stood at 0.1 per cent, but they’ve since been raised five times and now stand at 1.75 per cent. So the question on everyone’s lips right now …
Last month, the UK’s inflation figures for March were released. Having been 6.2% in February, inflation had risen to 7%, the highest rate for 30 years. Across the Atlantic, the figures were even worse, as US inflation reached 8.5% – the highest since March 1981 – as the Ukraine war pushed up energy prices. In …
This month’s 54 per cent rise in the energy price cap has put the cost of living firmly at the top of the news and the political agenda. Following the increase, a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity can expect to pay nearly £2,000 a year for their energy, and this could …
In the middle of March, Russia was due to make an interest payment of $117m (£89m) on two bonds denominated in dollars. There was some dispute over the payment: Russia said it had made the payment, the investors holding the bonds said they hadn’t received the money. The papers generally reported that if Russia didn’t …
As many of our clients will be aware, one of the great worries as the world recovers from the pandemic is inflation. Late last year the Bank of England suggested that inflation ‘might reach’ 5% in 2022. A week later the figures for November came out showing that inflation had already reached 5.1%. The UK …
You will likely have grown up knowing the ‘big four’ banks and their presence on every high street. Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds and HSBC (which you may remember as Midland Bank) were prominent in almost every town. If you needed a loan – especially if it was for business purposes – then your first port of …
Last month Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and boss of carmaker Tesla, announced that his firm had bought $1.5bn (£1.1bn) of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and expects to start accepting it as payment in the future. The announcement caused the price of Bitcoin to jump to $44,220 (£32,072) – a rise of 17% and a record …
