News

Central banks’ sustained use of low interest rates to keep economies on an even keel may force some pension funds to the wall and not enough is being done to protect them, according to new research from the International Monetary Fund.

Swipii staff celebrate the new cash injection. Swipii, the Glasgow-based loyalty and marketing resource for small businesses has recently raised $2.5 million through new investor funding.

Monthly contactless card spending has passed the £2 billion mark, new figures from The UK Cards Association show.

Aberdeen Asset Management has launched a sterling short-dated corporate bond fund to "meet the needs of investors looking for a conservative means of allocating to fixed income at a time when there are concerns about bonds".

George Street Lane The Glasgow Chamber of Commerce has backed plans for the £70 million regeneration of a site on the north east corner of George Square, which are submitted for planning permission this week.

The UK government is to restart the sale of the multi-billion pound portfolio of Bradford & Bingley mortgages it manages on behalf of the failed lender.

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, which has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, has announced double digit growth in profits as investment in talent and technology pays off, according to its annual results published today.

Imran Ahmad Edinburgh-based global investment manager Standard Life Investments has added to its team of five emerging market debt specialists with the appointment of Imran Ahmad as Investment Director – Emerging Market Debt (EMD).

Professor Graeme Roy, director of the Fraser of Allander Institute The cost of Brexit to Scotland’s GDP over the next decade could be £8 billion and tens of thousands of jobs, according to economic authorities at the Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde University’s business school.

Insurance giant Aviva has been fined £8,246,800 by the Financial Conduct Authority for failings in its oversight of outsourced providers in relation to the protection of client assets.

HSBC has announced plans to close its call centre in Edinburgh just days after it emerged that it was shutting down its technology centre at Stirling and moving 100 of those jobs to the Scottish capital.

Aberdeen Asset Management has been named among four bidders for UniCredit’s Pioneer fund management arm.

September saw the accounting deficit of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes for the UK’s 350 largest listed companies reduced slightly from £160 billion at the end of August to £152 billion by the end of last month.

Anthony Harbinson The first Manifesto for Fighting Economic Crime highlighting four key public policy areas for improvement to the effectiveness and capabilities of anti-money laundering (AML) in the UK has been published today by CCAB, the collective of five accountancy bodies - ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA,

MasterCard scholars Some 200 African students will benefit from the chance to study at a leading university, thanks to a new package of scholarships established through a new partnership between the University of Edinburgh and The MasterCard Foundation.