News

The UK government is to restart the sale of the multi-billion pound portfolio of Bradford & Bingley mortgages it manages on behalf of the failed lender.

Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, which has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, has announced double digit growth in profits as investment in talent and technology pays off, according to its annual results published today.

Imran Ahmad Edinburgh-based global investment manager Standard Life Investments has added to its team of five emerging market debt specialists with the appointment of Imran Ahmad as Investment Director – Emerging Market Debt (EMD).

Professor Graeme Roy, director of the Fraser of Allander Institute The cost of Brexit to Scotland’s GDP over the next decade could be £8 billion and tens of thousands of jobs, according to economic authorities at the Fraser of Allander Institute at Strathclyde University’s business school.

Insurance giant Aviva has been fined £8,246,800 by the Financial Conduct Authority for failings in its oversight of outsourced providers in relation to the protection of client assets.

HSBC has announced plans to close its call centre in Edinburgh just days after it emerged that it was shutting down its technology centre at Stirling and moving 100 of those jobs to the Scottish capital.

Aberdeen Asset Management has been named among four bidders for UniCredit’s Pioneer fund management arm.

September saw the accounting deficit of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes for the UK’s 350 largest listed companies reduced slightly from £160 billion at the end of August to £152 billion by the end of last month.

Anthony Harbinson The first Manifesto for Fighting Economic Crime highlighting four key public policy areas for improvement to the effectiveness and capabilities of anti-money laundering (AML) in the UK has been published today by CCAB, the collective of five accountancy bodies - ICAEW, ACCA, CIPFA,

MasterCard scholars Some 200 African students will benefit from the chance to study at a leading university, thanks to a new package of scholarships established through a new partnership between the University of Edinburgh and The MasterCard Foundation.

Official Statistics published by HMRC show the Scotland-generated share of UK tax receipts fell from 8.1 per cent in 2014/15 to 7.7 per cent in 2015/16.

Robert Nixon By Robert Nixon, head of residential letting, Speirs Gumley

Graham Millar Although it may grab the headlines, work related bribery and corruption isn’t the preserve of the world of sport, writes Gilson Gray LLP partner Graham Millar.

Paul McLaughlin The Scottish Government’s announcement that Project Bank Accounts (PBAs) are to be used as the preferred method on all public sector construction projects over £4 million has been hailed as a major step towards greater financial stability for the industry.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay and BoS treasurer Philip Grant show off a novelty version of the new plastic note The Bank of Scotland’s first main polymer banknote has entered circulation.