News

The limit on a single contactless card payment could more than double from the current £45 limit to £100. Earlier this month, Scottish Financial News reported that UK banks were pushing the Treasury to increase the limit. Industry experts urged that raising the cap to £100 cou

A mental health crisis is looming among SME owners after the stress and anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research from small business insurer Simply Business.

A rare Botticelli portrait could sell for $80 million in an auction at Sotheby's today.

RSM and KPMG's heads of tax in Scotland have issued predictions for the upcoming Scottish budget with the two anticipating a focus on recovery after COVID-19.  Shirley McIntosh, RSM’s head of tax in Scotland, said the budget should be a 'war chest statement' ahead of the May election.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has applied to the Secretary of State for Business to give up its status as a recognised professional body for insolvency practitioners. On 20 February 2019, ACCA asked the Secretary of State to consider the request to cease to be a Recognise

The move to homeworking and a decline in demand for short-stay Airbnb lets, as well as worries about Covid rates in urban areas, are thought to have contributed to rents plummetting in Edinburgh.

Corporate insolvency numbers (liquidations and receiverships) in Scotland for the whole of 2020 were 40% lower than in 2019, at 592 (2020) against 981 (2019), according to insolvency and restructuring trade body R3. The number of corporate insolvencies (liquidations and receiverships) in Scotla

The British accounting and tax system is the 11th most complex in Europe, a new report published by TMF Group, a multinational provider of professional services, reveals – making the country a trickier proposition for accountants than Russia, France or Germany. The report, entitled ‘Acco

Pensions and investment manager M&G has reasserted its commitment to Scotland by taking on a 20-year-lease on an office complex in Stirling. The new Kildean complex will provide an office base for around 700 employees who work for the group’s Prudential and M&G businesses on the Craigf

Cash machine use in Scotland has plummetted by more than a third during the coronavirus pandemic, renewing concerns about the future of cash. New figures released by Link have revealed that Scotland has seen the sharpest drop in cash machine us in the UK. The decline is thought to be linked to tough

The names of the streets and buildings at Barclays' state-of-the-art Glasgow Campus have been unveiled with the bank paying homage to the city’s industrial heritage.

Vector Capital plc, a commercial lending group that offers loans to businesses in the UK, has posted a robust full year performance amid the economic uncertainty of COVID-19. To the year ended 31 December 2020, Vector Capital has delivered a robust performance, in line with management expectations,

Scottish estate agency and lettings group Lomond has announced the completion of four acquisitions following the recent announcement of its merger with Linley & Simpson. Two of the businesses joining the Lomond group, Pad Residential and Allison & Co, are based in Manchester and the remainin

Brewin Dolphin has announced a trading update for the three months ended 31 December 2020 revealing strong income growth of 7% in the quarter. The firm's total funds increased by 8.0% to a record £51.4 billion (FY 2020: £47.6bn) in the quarter, with total discretionary funds up 8.3% to &

Scotland’s GDP is provisionally estimated to have fallen by 1.4% in November, as restrictions on economic activity were extended or reintroduced across large parts of the country. This is the first fall in GDP after six months of growth following the easing of the first lockdown in 2020. Outpu