Twenty Practical Steps to Better Corporate Governance | The Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA) Please click the li...
#BoardOfDirectors Dr. Patrick Conway Joins Echo Health Ventures' Board of Directors – Dr. Patrick Conway Joins Echo Health Ventures' Board of Directors MilTechFull coverage http://bit.ly/2BSJoT7
— Muzaffaruddin Alvi (@Muzaffar1969) December 8, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
#BoardOfDirectors BRIEF-Earl Shipp elected to Olin's board of directors – Reuters http://bit.ly/2iBlWEN
— Muzaffaruddin Alvi (@Muzaffar1969) October 26, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
#BoardOfDirectors INTIMATION OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS – 07.11.2017 – Hindu Business Line http://bit.ly/2zv9WaS
— Muzaffaruddin Alvi (@Muzaffar1969) October 23, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
LONDON — High street banking stalwart Lloyds Banking Group could be forced to pay back more than £80 million ($102.83 million) to deal with a fresh mis-selling scandal, soon after the conclusion of the notorious payment protection insurance saga.
The Times reports on Friday that the bank has started the process of writing to more than 7,000 customers holding accounts with Lloyds and Scottish Widows, its investments arm, offering them compensation if they bought certain structured investment products in the past.
Many of these products were marketed when sold as being simple and low risk, but turned out to be highly complex instruments, with a pair of products called the Acorn Market Linked Deposit and Protected Capital Solution Funds at the centre of the issue. The funds were sold to customers of what was at the time Lloyds TSB and Scottish widows.
The product, which was sold by Lloyds TSB between 2008 and 2010 “was in breach of providing fair, clear and not misleading promotions, because it provides the consumer with a misleading impression of the likely return,” according to a Financial Conduct Authority letter cited by the bank’s trade union, the LTU.
The LTU wrote in a newsletter on Wednesday that it expects combined compensation to reach as much as £82 million for all the products.
“We estimate that the total amount of compensation will be £66 million. In addition, Scottish Widows is also paying out £18 million to 3,500 customers who were mis-sold Protected Capital Solution Funds. We expect that further product reviews will see more customers receiving compensation,” the union said.
Lloyds does not expect the bill to be as high, The Times reports.
You can read the LTU’s full explanation of the mis-selling here.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Crocs has a new comeback plan — here’s why it could actually work
May 12, 2017 at 12:58PM
from Will Martin
MANAMA (Reuters) – FIFA has given no explanation for ousting the two heads of its Ethics Committee, but the move has led some to point the finger at president Gianni Infantino and left those hoping for reform at world football’s governing body feeling uneasy.
May 12, 2017 at 12:58PM
from Anti-Corruption Digest
LONDON — Improbable, a buzzy British startup that builds tech underpinning virtual reality worlds, has landed a $500 million (£389 million) cash injection.
The investment was led by Japanese firm Softbank and it’s a huge round of funding for a British startup. The cash is going towards tech development and hiring in its London HQ and San Francisco office, which it opened earlier this year.
What does Improbable actually do? Basically, it builds tech that does the heavy lifting required for huge simulations — whether that’s online gaming or scientific research. This frees up the people using the virtual reality software to get on with the business of modelling whatever it is they want to model.
“Today in computer science, people have mastered apps to build things for a single computer,” CEO Herman Narula previously told Business Insider. “And all the power of a single computer, people can use it to do really good things. But there’s this whole other wonderful set of problems that we want to solve — like recreating whole cities, or creating beautiful virtual worlds for us to explore, or being able to recreate economies, or being able to model all the processes in company — things that if we could do, we could do really great things.”
Founded in 2012, Improbable’s initial focus was on gaming — but has since broadened its view to everything from science to defence. In late 2015, it unveiled SpatialOS, an operating system for simulations, and launched a beta version in February 2017.
Narula says in a statement on Friday announcing the investment: “We believe that the next major phase in computing will be the emergence of large-scale virtual worlds which enrich human experience and change how we understand the real world. At Improbable we have spent the last few years building the foundational infrastructure for this vision.”
There’s no word yet on exactly what this week’s $502 million (£390 million) funding round values Improbable’s overall worth at. TechCrunch only reports that the company is worth more than $1 billion (£780 million) and that Softbank’s investment is a minority stake in the company — meaning it owns less than 50% of the company.
The investment is an order of magnitude larger than any previous funding Improbable has taken. Its last publicised round was in March 2015, when it brought in $20 million (£16 million), led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z). a16z also contributed to this more recent round of funding, Improbable says, along with Horizons Ventures, another previous investor.
By any standard, it’s a huge amount of cash for a British firm to raise. According to Bloomberg, it is the fifth-largest VC investment in the UK in the last 10 years.
Tech startups with valuations of $1 billion are more are sometimes referred to as “unicorns” due to their rarity — and Improbable has now been propelled into their ranks, alongside the likes of TransferWise and Funding Circle in the UK.
In a statement, Softbank managing director Deep Nishar was (predictably) effusive. He said: “Improbable is building breakthrough technologies that are becoming vital and valuable platforms for the global gaming industry.
“Beyond gaming, this new form of simulation on a massive scale has the potential to help us make better decisions about the world we live in. Improbable’s technology will help us explore disease, improve cities, understand economies and solve complex problems on a previously unimaginable scale.”
Improbable says it has already done a proof-of-concept to recreate an unnamed British city, based on open-source map, traffic, gas and electricity, water and sewage, Internet and mobile connectivity data.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Chinese inventors show off the gladiator robot they want to use to challenge the US’ ‘Megabot’
May 12, 2017 at 12:58PM
from Rob Price
The Liberal government is looking to formally establish a weekly session of question period devoted to the prime minister, but since April Trudeau has taken it upon himself to respond to all questions posed on Wednesdays.
May 12, 2017 at 12:58PM
from Anti-Corruption Digest
LONDON — The CEO of Tesco saw his total pay package fall be £500,000 last year, with sales not quite strong enough for him to earn his full bonus.
Dave Lewis’ total remuneration for 2016/17 was £4.1 million, compared to £4.6 million in 2015/16. The figures are disclosed in Tesco’s annual report, published on Friday.
Lewis’ base salary remained unchanged at £1.25 million and pension contributions were also steady at £313,000. Benefits jumped from £80,000 to £223,000. However, the Tesco CEO’s annual bonus fell from £2.9 million to £2.3 million.
Tesco’s annual report shows the fall in bonus was down to sales. The supermarket reached its target of at least £48.1 billion in sales from continuing operation (it reported £48.2 billion) but it would have had to hit £48.6 billion for Lewis to receive his full bonus.
Deanna Oppenheimer, the chair of Tesco’s remuneration committee, writes in the annual report: “Tesco has had a year of strong progress, delivering against the three turnaround priorities of improving competitiveness in the UK, a more secure balance sheet and rebuilding trust, which were set in 2014.
“A stable platform has been established and a strong performance delivered in spite of significant external challenges, which made 2016/17 another challenging year for retailers.
“As a result, the Committee determined that 75.6% and 74.2% of the maximum bonus opportunity should pay out for the Group Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, respectively.”
CFO Alan Stewart took home £2.2 million in 2016/17, including a £1.2 million bonus. He made £2.5 million in 2015/16 when his bonus was £1.6 million.
Tesco reported revenue up 3.7% to £55.9 billion for 2016/17, with profit before exceptional costs of £1.28 billion. The supermarket is currently in the midst of a multi-billion pound merger with food wholesaler Booker, Lewis’ first major M&A deal since taking the reigns at Tesco in 2014.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: SCOTT GALLOWAY: I believe every time Amazon reports a profit a manager gets yelled at
May 12, 2017 at 12:58PM
from Oscar Williams-Grut
The election of Emmanuel Macron as the new President of France afforded a sigh of relief, not only among the French majority who voted for him but also among many nations of Europe and the world. From global commentaries aside from the French, the sigh of relief came because the spirit of protectionism and ultra-conservatism that defined Brexit and the election of Donald Trump did not overwhelm France as well.
May 12, 2017 at 12:58PM
from Anti-Corruption Digest
May 10, 2017 at 01:02PM
from Tara Cunningham
Despite medical advancements, childbirth is a major cause of post-traumatic stress disorder – and yet nobody talks about it. Leah McLaren tells the harrowing story of the arrival of her second child – and her fight for treatment and support
The seconds that stretch between the act of giving birth and waiting to hear a baby cry are the most harrowing moments in an otherwise privileged life. My second son, Frank, didn’t cry.
Late last summer in a London hospital, he was born semi-conscious. His pulse was faint and he was floppy as a rag doll, a pale bluish grey in colour. There were angry red indents on his nose and skull that would later turn into deep purple bruises. According to his hospital notes his Apgar score at birth (on which 10 is hale and zero is non-responsive) was two. Just before emerging, Frank turned to the left and got stuck in the birth canal – no amount of pushing could make him budge. He was wrenched out of me, first ineffectively with a vacuum and then later, definitively, with a pair of giant metal salad tongs called forceps. The midwife briefly placed his limp little body on my chest and then scooped him up again and over to the opposite side of the room where the doctors began their work.
May 07, 2017 at 12:59PM
from Leah McLaren
