News

Kevin Ellis Global accountancy firm PwC has announced the election of Kevin Ellis as its new chairman and senior partner in the UK and Middle East for a four year term.

Royal Bank of Scotland has today announced a loss of £968m for the first quarter of 2016 on the back of a £1.2bn dividend payment to the government as a result of its £54 billion bailout at the height of the financial crisis. The Edinburgh-based lender, which is still 73 per cent state-owned, str

Catherine McManus Accountancy firm Wylie & Bisset has appointed Catherine McManus as its new head of tax.

Sir Tom Hunter The Hunter Foundation has teamed up with some of the UK’s leading European scholars to produce a free ebook to answer voters’ questions before the EU referendum on 23 June.

Aberdeen-based energy services giant Wood Group has secured its second huge contract in a week. The company today announced a huge new $500m (£342.5m) deal to supply services to BP-operated offshore projects in Azerbaijan today.

Milton Cottage, South Queensferry. Demand for middle to high end residential property in Edinburgh city centre and the surrounding areas has taken a dramatic upturn since the start of 2016, according to CKD Galbraith.

Latest figures from the Nationwide have shown UK house price growth slowed in this month, following the surge of buying last month to beat the rise in stamp duty. The UK’s second largest mortgage lender said the annual pace of house price growth slowed to 4.9 per cent in April, compared with 5.7 p

International businesses are postponing investment in Britain in the wake of EU uncertainty, a new paper by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has claimed. The RICS EU Referendum Paper which examines the pros and cons of the UK remaining and exiting Europe includes new survey data s

Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), the corporate governance group, has urged shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland to vote against the bank’s remuneration report at the lender’s AGM in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Speaking ahead of the meeting, Pirc said there were “important c

Latest figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) show that more than 230,000 people have taken up the new pension freedoms in the first year since they came into force. HMRC data shows that in the twelve months following the launch of the pension freedoms on April 6, 2015, when people aged 55 and o

Edinburgh-based Lloyds Banking Group has today reported a fall in profits for the first quarter of this year. The group, which owns Bank of Scotland, said the first three months of 2016 had seen "robust" performance, despite underlying profits for the January to March period down 6 per cent to £2.0

US spirits and wine giant, the Brown-Forman Corporation is to buy a Scottish whisky distillery firm in a £285m deal. The purchase of the whisky distiller BenRiach Distillery Company includes brand trademarks, three malt distilleries, a bottling plant and the company's Edinburgh HQ.

Scottish law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn has acted alongside Allen & Overy on the £6.1 billion securitisation of residential UK mortgages by US investment firm, Cerberus Capital Management ─ the largest residential mortgage-backed securitisation (RMBS) since the financial crisis hit in 2007.

A solicitor has pleaded guilty to stealing more than £21,000 from his law firm as a result of “financial difficulties”.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which pays out for claims against banks, building societies, credit unions and insurance, investment and home finance firms, has announced its funding for the new financial year. The financial services industry funds the compensation through a levy to FSCS