In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s hot out there. And lesson 1.0 in today’s irony course is that the physical heat is a sharp contrast to the nuclear winter that the economy is facing. Rocketing energy bills are precipitating an inflationary and political crisis. But, pleasingly, there’s a good news story to be told. […]
To the surprise of some commentators in the UK FinTech sector, the deals have kept coming for Funding Circle. Our friends at Crowdfundinsider report the latest, with the the full story available by clicking this link: Funding Circle, which claims to be the UK’s largest small business loan platform, and Waterfall, an institutional asset manager, recently […]
Challenger banks, as they were commonly known, are certainly developing their challenge to the mainstream. Witness the results of a new SME business service survey, as reported by our friends at Finextra. The UK’s Starling Bank has shot straight to the top of charts in the latest rankings of business banking services by the Competition […]
The new tax year, beginning 6th April, will see the launch of the UK government’s new debt finance programme. The Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) will replace the existing three lending programmes set up in the immediate aftermath of the onset of Covid-19 in the UK a year ago. The RLS will replace the Coronavirus Business […]
The tumult of news continues. Some of the FinTech sector’s players are jockeying for position ahead of the return of whatever it is we’re going to call normality once the Covid-19 epidemic has abated. Our friends at AltFi have an exclusive on the latest FinTech outfit to join the government’s various SME funding initiatives: Nucleus […]
Today, we bring you a new snippet from the running theme as reported in this News section of convergence between the mainstream and the alternative-finance sector, with the announcement of the grant of a new banking licence. Our friends at AltFi report: SME credit card lender Cashplus is now a full-on SME bank. This morning the Prudential […]
“Despite economic uncertainty, angel investors are continuing to invest in early-stage businesses and are optimistic about the future, the British Business Bank has found.” Is this a realistic appraisal or something akin to the jingoistic drivel (eyes, shut, fingers in ears – it’s all fine) we’re being fed on the political front? Our friends at […]
There’s an old political adage about never wasting a good crisis. The UK government’s prompt, if unfocused, action to shore up SMEs with Bounce-Back Loans has proved to be an opportunity for the unscrupulous (who’ve been making the most of the Covid-19 crisis in a nasty way). Our friends at City A.M. report comment to […]
The resurgence of the Covid-19 virus is causing mayhem on all fronts. The hotch-potch of government-backed schemes to aid small business – lots of different ideas distributed in a rather haphazard way – is right back with us. Or maybe there’s more order and sense to all this than first appears. You decide. Meanwhile, here’s […]
As times get tough, we have to innovate. Here’s a take on where we are and where we’re going: Money&Co. CEO, Nicola Horlick, explains the future as she sees it to our friends at P2P Finance News: The coronavirus crunch has made it harder to find small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans that are “safe options” […]