Abbey Life has successfully completed a major part of its Year 2000 compliance work following the vetting of its head office systems by IT specialists CS Rand.
The IT specialist conducted tests on Abbey's main frame Cobol system, which runs its head office administration operations, to ensure it is free from the Millennium Bug. The project cost £2.5m in total.
Co-operative Insurance Services has declared record terminal and annual bonuses of £716.3m for life and pension policies. The payouts on 10-year and 25-year endowment policies have increased by up to 2.8 per cent. But investors in medium term policies of 15 years have seen a fall in their returns of up to 1.2 per cent. […]
Scottish Amicable is under fire from IFAs for locking nearly 500,000 policyholders into poor-performing funds.It linked up with six external fund managers in February this year after years of dismal performance from its own fund managers.But only regular-premium policyholders since February 1998 and single-premium policyholders since September 1998 will be allowed access to the new […]
The evolution of species is usually a slow and steady process. A similar pattern is normally seen with financial products. Over the years, new features or related services are added to gain competitive advantage or allow the products to adapt and serve different customer needs.Studies of evolution have shown that periods of exceptionally fast change […]
Remortgage opportunities for IFAs could disappear if the UK base rate falls to continental levels, according to mortgage packager Private Label.Private Label chief executive Stephen Knight is predicting that the UK could become similar to the 'bland Euro-Style mortgage market'.He says: "IFAs who advise customers to take a higher fixed rate or capped rate now […]
While equity valuations have doubled since the financial crisis, Simon Edelsten explains that there are still pockets of value. But not where you might think Macro-economic uncertainty is causing turbulence in equity markets. Artemis Global Select Fund manager Simon Edelsten says his investment themes are taking him in a different direction to some of his peers – away […]
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A group of 500 people have launched legal action against Ingenious Media saying they were misled about film investments that were later deemed to be tax avoidance by the government. According to Bloomberg, which cites court documents, employees from companies including Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC are part of the action. British composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber is […]
Embark Services returned to profit in 2017 as it reported an increase in self-invested personal pension clients. Embark Services is a subsidiary of Embark Group that trades under the Hornbuckle and Embark brands. The business reported pre-tax profit for the year ending 31 December 2017 of £136,000 compared with a loss in 2016 of £2.4m. […]
Architas UK has seen inflows drop by just over 70 per cent in the first half of the year. The Axa-owned asset manager reported £152m net inflows for the first six months of 2018, compared with £546m in the first half of 2017. Globally, Architas’s net inflows dropped to €797m (£710.6m) in the first half […]