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Lloyds Bank – No Shares For Private Investors

The Government has confirmed, as previously rumoured, that its stake in Lloyds Banking Group is to be sold to institutions alone. There will not be an offer to private investors as was formerly indicated would take place. Chancellor Philip Hammond said "Returning Lloyds to the private sector is in the interests of the bank, taxpayers and the country as a whole" and "That is why exiting our stake in Lloyds in an orderly way and at the best possible price is one ...

Charles Stanley Direct Raise Charges

Charles Stanley Direct, one of the more popular execution only on-line trading platforms for retail investors, have announced they are revising their charges. This follows on from a similar announcement by AJ Bell Youinvest a few weeks ago. For share dealing, the transaction charge will rise from £10 to £11.50. In addition there will be a "platform" charge of 0.25% per annum on the value of the portfolio holdings, charged monthly although these will be capped at £240 per annum. In addition, ...

Pay and the Attitude of Institutional Investors

An article in the Financial Times on Friday (30/9/2016) focussed on the resistance of business to Theresa May's "responsible capitalism". Although the article acknowledged the need for change, for example in the area of director remuneration. Lots of practical problems were raised - for example how to select suitable worker representatives for boards in international companies. But the really revealing comment was this one from Paul Lee, Head of Corporate Governance at Aberdeen Asset Management. He was quoted as saying: "If ...

Foresight 4 VCT AGM Result

At the Annual General Meeting of Foresight 4 VCT today, all three board directors only very narrowly managed to get re-elected – with 50.01% voting FOR Chairman Philip Stephens,...

FCA Consultation on MiFID II

On 29th September the FCA launched a third consultation paper on the MiFID II directive. Now, this may appear to be a very dry subject, of little significance to individual...