By Shelly Durrant & Henry Adefope Neil Woodford – formerly the mercurial investment maverick renowned for his 25-year track record making stunning investment returns for investors, is now known as the man who lost it all. This month marks three years since the collapse of the Woodford Equity Income (WEI) fund that he managed –…
Category: Financial Services
This month in pensions: Looking for solutions amid rising inflation and cost of living challenges
By Gareth Jones In the past month, issues around the cost of living and inflation have remained at the top of the political and policy agenda, with latest ONS figures showing that CPI inflation hit 7% in March (rising from 6.2% in February) and set to rise further still. This type of high inflationary environment…
Time for trusts: Why younger investors are opting for an investment vehicle as old as time
By Katie Ormrod According to Interactive Investor, during the past 18 months, the newest generation of investors aged 18-24 have managed to consistently outperform all other age groups. You may be forgiven for assuming that these healthy returns are down to bright-eyed investors allocating their portfolios towards trendier (or riskier) assets like cryptocurrencies. However, the…
Inflation a big concern for pensions
By Gareth Jones As the world continues to focus on events in Ukraine, the impact of Russia’s invasion is beginning to be felt at home in our economy and in the cost of living. For the pensions sector, as with many other sectors, the immediate impact concerns inflation. UK inflation (along with global inflation) had…
Pensions overview of the month
By Sara Neidle As the world looks on in horror at the tragic events taking place in Ukraine, we are already seeing the economic, social, and human impact of the crisis as the situation continues to develop. As a result, several questions have arisen as the world decides how they will best respond. With new…
Financial Services sector get women and BAME on board
By Henry Adefope Sector exceeds Gov gender and BAME targets ahead of time In 2016, the government-backed Hampton-Alexander review set an ambitious target of 33% of executive board positions at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 firms to be held by women by the end of 2020, while the 2017 Parker review set a10% representation target…
Brexit and the City: Where do we go from here?
By Gareth Jones This month marks one year since the end of the Brexit transition period and when UK financial services firms began operating under the new post-Brexit regime. For those wishing to assess these past 12 months on UK financial services (including banking, capital markets, asset management and insurance sectors), and the future prospects…
More stick, less carrot. How regulatory scrutiny and shareholder activism will define the Climate Change agenda in 2022
By Dafydd Rees It’s the most important public debate of our times. In 2022 Climate Change will be top of the agenda. Here in the UK, research for SEC Newgate, ahead of the COP26 Climate Change Summit, identified the issue as a bigger concern than the COVID-19 pandemic or the state of the economy. While…
SEC Newgate UK’s Outlook for 2022
By members of the SEC Newgate UK team At the end of another tumultuous year socially, politically, economically and environmentally, we asked our colleagues for their views on the themes that are likely to dominate in 2022. The collective sigh of relief that greeted the end of 2020 could scarcely have prepared us for another…
Financial services companies should listen to the voices within
By Henry Adefope Recently, DWS (formerly Deutsche Bank) became aware that they were being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, and the regulator in Germany (BaFin) forgreenwashing – an increasingly distasteful term in financial services (‘FS’). The Hercule Poirot fans among you may be wondering where did the SEC and…