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Stock Market / Finance in United Kingdom

  • Spain’s Basque Country is taking steps to cement links with the UK, the fourth biggest market for its services

    EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/05/11 Spain’s Basque Country is taking steps to cement links with the UK, the fourth biggest market for its services While the UK and Brussels wrangle over hard versus soft Brexits and the nature of next trade deals, Spain’s Basque business development agency, SPRI, has quietly opened an office in London, confident that it will be business as usual. Regardless of whether the UK is in or out of the EU, the Basque Country cannot afford to turn its back on the country that accounted for €1.29bn of its exports in 2016, ranking fourth behind France, Germany and the US.
  • A weak pound is no tonic for UK's long-term economic recovery

    UNITED KINGDOM, 2016/10/31 A tumbling pound is the defibrillator shock that Britain’s ailing exporters desperately needed to halt their terminal decline. That’s the message repeated on an almost daily loop by economists for Brexit. Presently that sterling has lost almost a fifth of its price against the dollar and about 14% against the euro since the referendum, it follows that the EU referendum vote was the best thing that could happen to the economy. Almost overnight, manufacturers have found the price of their goods abroad have dropped, making them additional competitive. They just need to let the currency work for them, revving up production safe in the knowledge they can undercut their rivals. It is a narrow economic argument that uses Germany’s exporting prowess as a template. This success is all about exporting upmarket cars, trucks and machine tools to China, Brazil and the Middle East.
  • Central Banks Tell Regulators Banks Must Tighten SWIFT Security

    UNITED KINGDOM, 2016/09/24 The world's biggest central banks have told regulators that banks must tighten security around their SWIFT messaging systems following the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank in February. The SWIFT Oversight Forum, a group of 10 of the biggest central banks, led by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB), has sent an update to bank regulators urging them to scrutinize banks' procedures, according to an undated document recently published on the NBB website. Financial institutions use SWIFT messages to send instructions for transfers worth trillions of dollars each day.
  • Britain faces free trade headache after Brexit vote

    UNITED KINGDOM, 2016/09/12 Britain’s desire to become a free trade leader following its vote to leave the EU is seen as wishful thinking by experts, who say London’s hands are tied until a formal exit from the bloc. Prime Minister Theresa May used this month’s G20 summit in China to explore potential trade deals with Australia, India, Mexico, Singapore and South Korea. But international trade experts have been quick to highlight Britain’s lack of experience in such negotiations.
  • Dollar Surges Against British Pound On Weak U.K. Private Sector Data

    UNITED STATES, 2016/07/24 The dollar is gaining ground against all of its major competitors Friday afternoon. There has been no U.S. data to drive the direction of trading at the end of the week, but a disappointing U.K. private sector statement has driven the buck sharply higher against the pound sterling. Central banks were as well in focus at the end of the trading week. Hopes for further stimulus measures from the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have begun to fade. The European Central Bank left its key interest rates unchanged in its initial policy session next "Brexit" yesterday.
  • Germany warns UK on single market access

    GERMANY, 2016/06/11 If British people vote to leave the EU, the UK would be kept out of the single market and the EU would not integrate further, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said. "In is in. Out is out," the influential minister said in an interview with the Spiegel , a German weekly. "Europe would as well work without Britain if necessary," he added.
  • United Kingdom Inflation December 2015

    UNITED KINGDOM, 2016/01/28
  • British services PMI rises to 54.9 in October

    UNITED KINGDOM, 2015/11/24 British services purchasing managers' index (PMI), a gauge measuring the industry activity, up to 54.9 in October from 53.3 in September, indicating that the Index rose for the initial time since June, said data supplier Markit on Wednesday. According to the statement, the pace of expansion in output was still the second-weakest since May 2013, and new business increase failed to accelerate from September's 29-month low. Moreover, the 12-month outlook for activity was the weakest in two-and-a-half years. Service sector employment rose in October, continuing the trend shown since January 2013. The rate of job creation strengthened to a five-month high, and remained faster than the long-run survey average.
  • British bankers convicted in the US for manipulation of the Libor rate

    UNITED STATES, 2015/11/08 The Libor scandal blew up in 2012 at the same time as it emerged that banks had been lying in the figures on which Libor was set. The Libor rate is a key figure in setting world borrowing rates. The US Department of Justice reached a transaction with Rabobank in October 2013 for $1bn over its role in manipulating Libor. This was the initial conviction of traders involved in the scandal in the US. In August, Tom Hayes, a former Tokyo-based trader at UBS and Citigroup was convicted of Libor-manipulation in London.The Libor scandal blew up in 2012 at the same time as it emerged that banks had been lying in the figures on which Libor was set. Two British bankers have been convicted by a New York jury of manipulating inter-bank lending rates. Anthony Allen and Anthony Conti were charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud and committing wire fraud, by misreporting the London interbank offered rate (Libor) as it related to the US dollar. Both worked for Dutch lender Rabobank.
  • UK may face 2-notch rating cut if it leaves EU

    UNITED KINGDOM, 2015/10/31 Britain's credit rating could be cut by as much as two notches if it leaves the European Union, Standard & Poor's told Reuters on Thursday. A vote to quit the EU would be likely to result a one-notch downgrade, which could be increased to two notches if relations between London and Brussels deteriorated significantly, the agency's chief sovereign rating officer told Reuters in an interview. Support part Britons for staying within the bloc has tumbled as an influx of migrants into Europe has pushed a lot of voters towards opting for an exit ahead of a referendum due by the end of 2017.