News

Customers of Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary NatWest will soon be able to find out their bank balance and hear their latest transactions on smart speakers after the lender announced it will embark on a trial of voice banking.

UK plc borrowing rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2018/19, according to the latest Link Group UK plc Debt Monitor. Net debt (total borrowings less cash), jumped 5.8 per cent to a new record of £443.2bn, even allowing for higher cash balances.

Former executive director of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), Atholl Duncan, has been appointed as the new chair of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO). The appointment comes as the organisation released figures showing overseas sales of salmon have risen by 2

Scotland’s private sector economy approached stagnation in July, growing only fractionally, the latest Royal Bank of Scotland PMI has revealed. Order books increased for a second month running, however growth here was driven entirely by demand for services as manufacturing sales dropped sharpl

High street retailers in Scotland saw a 4.8 per cent dip in footfall last month, according to the latest figures.

Legal & General Retail Retirement (LGRR) has acquired MyFutureNow, which specialises in pension pot tracing and consolidation.

By Graeme Hartop, chief executive at Hampden & Co  

The outlook for employment in the UK has fallen for the third consecutive month following half a decade of near sustained growth, according to a new report from accountants and business advisors BDO LLP. BDO’s Employment Index, which combines forward-looking employment intentions as well as th

FTSE 350 DB pension scheme deficits have fallen by nearly a third and a growing number of firms approach the financial position required to buyout their liabilities, according to the latest research from Barnett Waddingham.

Two brothers are keeping it in the family after purchasing an established Hamilton-based dental surgery with significant funding support from Barclays. Paul and Martin Allan have purchased the long-established Borland & Morton surgery from its retiring founding partners, after receiving a £

A shop on the uninhabited Scottish archipelago of St Kilda needs someone new to run it, its owners have said. Permanent habitation on the islands, which sit around 40 miles north west of its nearest neighbours in the Outer Hebrides, possibly extends back at least two millennia but probably

Nationwide has been told to refund £6 million to affected current account customers after it broke a legal order from the Competition and Markets Authority. The action comes after Nationwide was found to have broken Part 6 of the CMA’s Retail Banking Market Investigation Order 2017, whic

More than £7 million worth of fraudulent transactions have been prevented in Scotland in the last financial year (April 2018 – March 2019) as a result of the Banking Protocol a rapid response scheme aimed at preventing bank customers from falling victim to scams.

Insurance giant Aviva, which employs 2,500 staff across hubs in Perth and Bishopbriggs, has announced that first half operating profits rose 1 per cent to £1.4bn driven by a strong result in general insurance, which more than offset weakness in fund management and the lack of longevity re

The Co-operative Bank has posted half year results showing that it narrowed its losses in the first six months of the year, but warned that profitability is under pressure in the mortgage market. The bank recorded an operating profit of £14.9m, compared with an £84m loss in 2017.