News

Standard Life moved its company pension fund heavily into bonds last year, recording the biggest switch of any FTSE-100 company. New research by JLT Employee Benefits shows the average bond allocation rose to 61 per cent in the year to 31 December 2015, which is equivalent to around £20bn.

Edinburgh-based Scottish Widows has secured a £630 million pensioner buy-in deal for the ICI Pension Fund. The transaction marks the largest ever external bulk annuity transaction to date for the life insurance arm of Lloyds Banking Group and covers more than 4,000 of the fund’s pensioner members

ICAS has announced a new partnership with specialist financial services group Close Brothers Asset Finance. The new five-year partnership agreement builds on the current relationship the specialist financial services group has with ICAS.

House sales in Scotland have seen a significant boost thanks to a new property tax, with first time buyers among the beneficiaries. The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), introduced earlier this year to help first time buyers get a foothold on the property ladder, has led to an 11 per cent b

New data from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch has shown that the world's investors are currently sitting on the biggest “mountain of cash” since November 2001 as they hold fast in the face of Brexit fears and uncertainties around US rates and the Chinese economy. The bank said that fund manage

UK home-owners borrowed £8.1bn for house purchase in April, down 40 per cent month-on-month and 4 per cent year-on-year, according to latest data from the Council of Mortgage lenders. They took out 47,300 loans, down 31 per cent on March and 5 per cent on April 2015, the CML said.

An employee at the Geneva offices of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers leak, has been arrested.

A leading economic forecaster has reported that the Scottish economy has weakened over the past three months and warned Scotland may fail to avoid a recession before the end of the year, should the trend continue. The University of Strathclyde's Fraser of Allander Institute has revised down its grow

Last month saw Scotland's high streets enjoy a five month high for sales as a result of warmer weather but the latest figures still show retailers north of the border are struggling to sustained growth. According to new data from the Scottish Retail Consortium and KPMG, May saw fashion, outdoor livi

Bob Doris MSP A Glasgow SNP MSP has announced that he is to bring Royal Bank of Scotland’s plans to close three branches in the city to task before the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood.

Marcia Campbell Former Standard Life director Marcia Campbell is rumoured to be set to be announced as the new chair of Woodford Investment Management.

The ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ is a major Scottish lender, with over half a billion (£582m) loaned out to families, according to Bank of Scotland’s latest How Scotland Lives research. This study, which looks at family debt, identified that the average Scot owes their parents £3,079. With 28 per c

Corporate insurance broker Lockton has warned that many firms across Scotland are unaware of the implications of one of the biggest shake-ups in UK insurance law for more than a century. On August 12 this year, the Insurance Act 2015 comes into force, making major changes to legislation which has be

Louise Miller Wealth manager Charles Stanley has revealed that Louise Miller, the head of client services at its Edinburgh-based direct-to-consumer service arm, Charles Stanley Direct, has been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to UK-Serbian relations in the Queen’s 90th birthday honou

Convention Edinburgh, the business tourism arm of the city’s official marketing agency, Marketing Edinburgh, has reported its most successful year to date, securing new conference and event bid wins worth £94.3 million to the local economy and a 10,000 boost in delegate numbers. Representing a £