News

Bitcoin has controversially become legal tender in El Salvador, the Central American country which gave up its own currency in favour of the US dollar two decades ago. The cryptocurrency can now be used by citizens to shop, pay taxes and buy land, FT reports.

A shopkeeper has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a customer's winning lottery ticket and then attempting to flee the country. The man, who has not been named, was caught by border police at Rome's main airport, The Guardian reports.

Glasgow-based venture capital and private equity firm N4 Partners (N4) has announced that it has appointed former KPMG partner, Phil Charles to its advisory board. Mr Charles has spent over two decades working at KPMG where he was latterly a Senior Partner, leading the global accountancy firm’

Drinks giant Diageo has launched its landmark Johnnie Walker Princes Street visitor experience store. Four and a half years in the making, Johnnie Walker Princes Street is the centrepiece of the firm's £185 million investment in Scotch whisky tourism in Scotland.

Aberdeen tech start-up CryptoDramz is set to be the first in the world to sell limited-edition Scotch whisky collections using digital Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to verify the provenance and future history of each example. An NFT representing the first of 20 custom-made whisky sets in its first coll

Rod Read, a Lewis man who recently moved to Shetland and set up Windswept and Interesting Ltd, has been awarded £40,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to help make kite energy a reality. Mr Read set up Windswept and Interesting Ltd in 2012 when he started developing kite turbines.

Lismore Real Estate Advisors (Lismore) have advised joint venture partners, Chancerygate and JR Capital on the £6.5 million acquisition of G3 Arrol Road in Wester Gourdie Industrial Estate, Dundee from West Ranga Property Group.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has appointed Joanna Peteranna as interim area manager for the Outer Hebrides. Ms Peteranna takes over from Rachel Mackenzie who leaves HIE on 17 September to become the finance director of MG Alba after eight years with the organisation.

After eighteen torrid months for Scottish business, where jobs and livelihoods have hung in the balance, CBI Scotland is calling on the SNP to use the forthcoming Programme for Government to make good on their election promise to "put the economy first".

UK Finance is urging the British public to donate the spare change they have accumulated during the pandemic to charity. Figures from UK Finance show that the British public is sitting on piles of loose change worth an estimated £50 million. Along with the Charities Aid Foundation, UK Finance

Scottish footfall decreased by 21.2% in August, a 5.9 percentage point increase from July, according to the latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic IQ Footfall Monitor.

Tens of thousands of rural and island homes and businesses in Scotland are set to access the UK’s fastest and most reliable broadband. An investment of £384 million by the Scottish Government through the Reaching 100% programme (R100) will see building of full fibre connec

Fishing businesses and marine organisations in Scotland have been awarded funding to mitigate the impacts of Brexit and help the sector recover from effects of COVID-19. The financial support of almost £800,000 – part of the £14 million Marine Fund Scotland - was announced by rural

Three French police officers have been arrested after crashing their car when one of them jokingly used a Taser on the driver. The officers were finishing their shift and driving back from Tourcoing to nearby Roubaix, both near the border with Belgium, at the time.

Not-for-profit lender DSL Business Finance Ltd had a record year in 2020-21, providing funding of over £5.6 million to small and medium-sized businesses and social enterprises in Scotland, up from £4.5m in 2019. The Glasgow-headquartered alternative finance provider continued to assist e