News

Scotland’s population is projected to continue to increase into the future. Statistics published yesterday by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show the population of Scotland is projected to rise from 5.35 million in 2014 to 5.51 million over the next ten years, and then to continue to rise

The Scottish Government has made £25 million available through a social investment charity to provide unsecured medium-term loans for housing associations. Allia, which won the charitable bond programme delivery contract following a public procurement exercise, will provide loans exclusively for RS

Still 73 per cent state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland Group has reported a third-quarter net profit of £952m, up from £896m year-on-year on the back of a £1.1bn one-off gain from its sale of US subsidiary bank Citizens. The news comes a day after RBS announced that it is selling its remaining 20.9

Scotland enjoyed an 8 per cent rise in the number of new homes registered by local authorities during the last quarter, according to new figures released today by NHBC. Councils registered a total of 3,313 new homes between July and September in 2015, compared to 3,060 homes over the same period las

The Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) has warned Scotland’s small businesses that they are "easy pickings" for hackers. The body, responsible for cyber security in Scotland, urged small businesses to take pre-emptive action to limit the threat of cyber attacks.

Scottish airport operator HIAL’s strong run of growth in 2015 continued in the last quarter, according to latest figures. In the third quarter (July to September), the group recorded an extra 12,522 passengers (up 3.1 per cent) compared to the same period in 2014.

James Stephen BDO’s business restructuring partners James Stephen and Graham Newton have been appointed joint administrators at renewable energy firm Aquamarine Power.

The Moray Council needs to “significantly increase” the pace of change and improvement if it is to build on the progress made over the last two years, according to the Accounts Commission. A report published by the watchdog today looks at developments since a 2013 audit on how the council was me

Standard Life’s chief executive Keith Skeoch has hailed the performance of the life and pensions group after latest results revealed it had beaten forecasts on both assets under administration (AUM) and net inflows in the latest quarter.

Scots-based private equity house Maven Capital Partners has announced the sale of Aberdeen-based energy services business XPD8 Solutions to John Crane Group, a division of FTSE 100 listed Smiths Group plc. The sale has delivered an attractive return on Maven client funds’ original investment and i

The creation of a new ethical finance hub for Scotland will be announced tonight at Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh campus. The Scottish Ethical Finance Hub (SEFH), which has received backing from the Scottish Government as well as leaders in the financial sector, will be based at Heriot-Watt U

Midlands-based investment group Mercia Technologies has opened an office in Edinburgh as it bids to target emerging early-stage Scottish businesses. The firm’s Scottish drive will be headed-up by investment manager Paul Devlin and the operation has already forged partnerships with Dundee’s Abert

Edinburgh-based Lloyds Banking Group has posted a 28 per cent increase in profits before tax for the third quarter, up to £958m from £751m in the same period last year. However, the group,which includes Bank of Scotland, set aside another £500m to compensate customers over the mis-selling of Paym

Edinburgh-based banking giant Royal Bank of Scotland has disclosed new figures that show 70 per cent of its customers who fall victim to fraud scammers never see a penny of their money again. Figures from the still 73 per cent state-owned lender show that from January to September this year almost 5

Wages in the construction industry have risen at a faster rate than any other sector over the past 12 months, according to fresh analysis of the latest data. In the last year, average pay in the building trade shot up by 5.1 per cent, the examination of labour market statistics compiled by the Offic