News

House prices in the UK dropped again in May with prices 0.2% lower than in April, according to the latest Halifax House Price Index.

Card and contactless payments continued to increase in 2019, with card payments accounting for over half (51%) of all payments for the first time, according to the latest UK Payment Markets report from UK Finance.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out a package of measures designed to address weaknesses across the defined benefit (DB) transfer market. It includes steps to reduce conflicts of interest by banning contingent charging, as well as help for advisers who want to do the right thing and pr

Divorces have risen sharply in Saudi Arabia during the coronavirus pandemic, apparently driven by women discovering that their husbands are secret polygamists.

The journey into the next phases of pandemic management is well underway and the timing of opening of different industries is becoming clearer each week. It is good that the government has extended financial support under the Job Retention Scheme (JRS, or Furlough) and is allowing businesses to bri

The Scottish Building Society (SBS) has pledged that none of its customers will be at risk of losing their home over the next 12 months as it announced an emergency support package for customers in financial difficulty due to COVID-19. As well as banning repossessions, the society is extending the c

Dundee-based accountancy firm MHA Henderson Loggie has launched a special offer for healthcare and other key workers looking to save on specialist tax and financial planning services. From today, healthcare and key workers can benefit from a 20% reduction on tax return fees, ands the same reduction

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill, which was debated in the House of Commons yesterday, is a significant step forward in attempts to mitigate the enormous economic damage caused by COVID-19, according to insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 in Scotland. The firm has said that b

Edinburgh-based software company Sharktower AI has announced the appointment of Brendan Waters as its chief financial officer. Mr Waters spent several years as a corporate finance advisor to technology businesses before joining one of the UK’s highest-profile tech start-ups, FanDuel, as their

Dominic Gibson, an Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) student from Paisley, has achieved the top score for the APM - Advanced Performance Management exam, making him a global prize-winner in the latest ACCA exam session. ACCA celebrates outstanding exam achievement by candidates w

The Royal Bank of Scotland is hosting a Q&A webinar with business experts to help Scottish SMEs prepare for the easing of lockdown restrictions and the challenges COVID-19 has created. The free event, called From Resilience to Recovery, will see mentors, economists and fraud experts come togethe

Scotland’s Towns Partnership, through its sister organisation Scotland’s Improvement Districts, has announced a new strategic partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland. The partnership will mean that all of Scotland’s near 40 Business Improvement Di

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has welcomed the UK Government's announcement of a temporary, government-backed reinsurance scheme to help businesses access trade credit insurance as they recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The scheme aims to help speed up the economic re

UK new car sales were down -89.0% in May with just over 20,000 vehicles delivered as the coronavirus lockdown continued.

The UK employment rate had reached a joint-record high of 76.6% before the coronavirus crisis hit the UK according to the latest Labour Market Statistics update published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  The employment rate was 0.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier