1.8m British expats in EU should register now to vote in the UK’s general election: deVere CEO

31 OCTOBER 2019

British expats need to ensure that they are registered to vote in the UK’s forthcoming general election this December sooner rather than later.

This is the warning from the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

Nigel Green, chief executive and founder of deVere Group, which has more than 80,000 mainly expatriate clients in 100 countries globally, is speaking out after it was confirmed that the UK is going to have a 12 December general election after the opposition Labour party agreed to a vote called for by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Mr Green notes: “Many expats, quite rightly, remain angry and frustrated that even if they were eligible to participate in the 2016 Brexit referendum, the registration process took too long and was too burdensome, and ultimately they were unable to do so.

“It is particularly galling as those expats resident within the EU27 are disproportionately affected by Brexit.  

“For instance, if there is a no-deal Brexit, which remains a slight yet dangerous possibility, it is likely that their pensions, insurance and healthcare will be adversely affected overnight.”

He continues: “As this critical general election is, in effect, a second Brexit referendum, they should act now to register to vote in order to ensure their voice is heard.

“This will also help to counteract the injustice of the fact that 700,000-plus British expats are disenfranchised from the UK political system after 15 years overseas and were denied the vote on something that directly affects them.
 
“All other G7 countries except the UK allow their citizens voting rights for life. Why is Britain different? It’s especially frustrating that many are still liable for UK inheritance tax, amongst others, but are not allowed to vote in the UK after 15 years. 

“Whatever happened to ‘no taxation without representation’?”

Mr Green concludes: “Expats’ futures hang in the balance with this general election as it will inevitably shape Brexit’s direction of travel.” 

“If they are eligible to do so under the current archaic rules – which must be updated in the next parliament – expats should register to vote sooner rather than later.”

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

New China West cross-culture leadership and business management book launches at Hult Ashridge

A new China West cross-culture leadership and business management book entitled ‘Guanxi in the Western Context:  Intra-Firm Group Dynamics and Expatriate Adjustment’ is launching in November, written by Dr Barbara Wang, a full-time professor at Hult Ashridge Executive Education.  The book launch will take place on Tuesday, 12 November 2019 in the Old Library at Hult Ashridge Executive Education, Ashridge Berkhamsted, Herts HD4 1NS from 11:00am – 12:00pm.

Guanxi is a form of social interaction, unique to the Chinese culture, of forging connections, making contacts and forming warm relationships in business.  While research on guanxi in China has been intense, for the first time this book examines how the employees of Chinese multinational companies employ guanxi in the West;  how Chinese expatriates develop and use guanxi in the host country, and how these behaviours affect their adjustment to their environment.  Aimed at business academia and practitioners, this book illuminates how guanxi shapes social relations in Western branches of these Chinese multinationals, supporting Western managers who seek a deeper understanding of how their Chinese counterparts operate, and Chinese managers who want to increase their awareness of the culture they are immersed in.

Based on Dr Wang’s PHD thesis, this book is the culmination of five years of study into the globalisation of Chinese companies in Western markets since 2005, and how senior executives practise guanxi versus how social network is traditionally practised in Western culture.           

Firstly, the book elaborates on the contextualisation of guanxi to highlight how guanxi emerged, evolved, and subsequently dominated the business system in China.                                                                                                

Next, it examines empirically how guanxi practice affects intra-firm multicultural group dynamics involving Chinese expatriates, host-country nationals, and host-country Chinese in Chinese multinationals.  It shows how expatriates actively practise guanxi with their homeland counterparts, but not with host-country nationals and host-country Chinese. 

Then, it examines the impact of guanxi in building Chinese expatriate adjustment to develop a process model that illuminates that guanxi development alters expatriates’ adjustment curve significantly.

Finally, the book develops a framework of cross-cultural guanxi leadership to lead multicultural teams effectively in the host county.

Dr Barbara Wang says, “This book contributes more generally to shed light on cross-cultural management in terms of Chinese guanxi practice in the Western context.  When I started my study I made assumptions that all Chinese executives practise guanxi.  However, I discovered that Chinese expats don’t practise guanxi with local Chinese for complex reasons as they don’t believe they can reap the returns they need.

“The other assumption I made was that local Europeans don’t understand or practise guanxi.  However, I learned that there is a desire to study Chinese culture and Westerners are motivated to practise guanxi even though it is not inherent to how they operate.

“I recommend that if Chinese companies want to improve their soft power they should take steps to study cross-cultural programmes and become ‘glocal’.  They should do their homework and understand and adapt to the local culture and be open to including everyone in guanxi, which will enhance their global cultural influence.  To sum up, guanxi is the code of China.”

Professor Davide Ravasi, director of the PhD Programme at UCL School of Management, comments, “From research in international business we know a lot about Western multinationals, but we know much less about the up and coming multinationals from China. Yet, many of these multinationals will likely dominate global markets in the years to come. Barbara Wang’s work illuminates for the first time how guanxi – a form of social interaction unique to the Chinese culture – shapes social relations in Western branches of these multinationals. It is an important reading for both Western managers who seek a deeper understanding of how their Chinese counterparts operate, and Chinese managers who want to increase their awareness of the culture they are immersed in.”

Professor John Yang, co-Dean of BiMBA at the National School of Development, Peking University, adds, “Barbara Wang’s new book on guanxi is full of insights and wisdom critical for both Western and Chinese expatriates as well as Chinese professionals overseas. The book not only contributes to making successful global business deals but also provides better cross-cultural perspectives to develop a healthier China versus world business relationship.”

Dr Barbara Wang

Professor of Cross-cultural Leadership, Hult Ashridge Executive Education

Dr Barbara Wang is the academic director – China of Hult Ashridge Executive Education and association dean of China initiatives. 

Her interests lie in cross-cultural leadership/management, and Chinese leadership and executive coaching.  She has extensive experience in management training and consulting and has designed and delivered leadership development programmes and coaching for multinational companies such as ABB, Volvo, Daimler, Continental, Sinopec, China Post, Bank of China and Air China.  She also teaches on executive programmes for other British and Chinese universities.

Before her current roles, Barbara was a vice president for the Western Management Institute of Beijing.  Her commercial experience extends to working for multinational companies in China where she was the retail operations director for CELINE of the Louis Vuitton group, and the global accounts manager in China for DHL.

Barbara holds a PhD from Cass Business School in the UK, where her research focused on cross-cultural leadership/management of Chinese multinational enterprises in Europe.  She has qualified in many leadership psychometric tools.

Barbara’s new book ‘Guanxi in the Western Context: Intra-Firm Group Dynamics and Expatriate Adjustment’ (Palgrave Macmillan) was published in July 2019 in the UK, and she is co-author of Chinese Leadership (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

For further information, please contact: 
Olivia Sandu, James Walerych, Malika White, Lynda Heath Ash Communications 133 Whitechapel High Street London E1 7QA Tel: +44 (0)20 3457 0837 
E-mail  olivia@ashcommunications.com james@ashcommunications.com malika@ashcommunications.com lynda@ashcommunications.com  

Overview of the Controversial Modern Monetary Theory

Few theories have caused so many discussions as the Modern monetary theory (or MMT), which has been popularized by the leftmost sector of the Democratic Party, US, when it recurred to it to defend the huge expenses of the federal government on an attempt to detoxify the country from the fossil fuels and to finance a Medicare coverage for all.  

The re-birth of the Modern Monetary Theory  

MMT was created in the 1970s by the American economist Warren Mosler and shows similarities with older schools like Chartalism and Functional Finance. It was congresswoman and activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who brought the debate to the table. In January 2019, she claimed that the government should implement Modern Monetary Theory to finance the Green New-Deal, applying political measures similar to those of the 1930s to augment the expenses but for ecologic reasons. In a public interview, she expressed that MMT should “be a larger part of the conversation.”

The approach

Despite the complexity and debate around MMT, there are some basic concepts shared by most of its adepts. The fundamental idea is that since the abandonment of the gold standard, a sovereign estate can print as much money as needed to finance public expenses and inject money into the economy, which they later withdraw in taxes.  They sustain that governments cannot go broke, as they can always create more money to pay off debts.

According to MMT theorists, we have been misled to think that substantial government debt is followed by financial collapse. Moreover, they state that if the spending creates deficit, it isn’t a real problem, as the national deficit is, in fact, the private sector’s surplus.

Modern Monetary Theory and inflation

Mainstream economists argue that it is ridiculous to think that central banks can finance massive spending without causing high inflation or even hyperinflation. Modern Monetary Theory, on the other side, reckons that there is a direct relationship between the circulation quantity of money and the level of prices. Yet, although they recognize the risk of inflation, they see it as a constraint that will keep decision-makers honest. Inflation is perceived as a result of real resource limits, and the Congress should set the spending, tax, and industry policies to keep inflation under control.

Restrictions on Modern monetary theory

Modern Monetary Theory advocates state that governments don´t have a budget constraint, and the only limit they have is the availability of real resources, like supplies and workers. If government spending is excessive in relation to the available resources, inflation could occur; therefore, the importance of proper policies.

It´s undeniable that Modern Monetary Theory keeps gaining attention and adepts, especially in the progressive political sectors. However, they haven´t provided a convincing response to the inherent problem of inflation yet.

Few theories have caused so many discussions as the Modern monetary theory (or MMT), which has been popularized by the leftmost sector of the Democratic Party

Is Modern Monetary Theory the panacea that will solve the world´s woes? Or is MMT just a new buzzword that keeps rising popularity? Implementing it would be a bold, risky experiment with no point of return or the miracle-solution we all crave for?

Could cryptocurrency and blockchain technology be the saviour?

Deutsche Bank Near Bankruptcy, Could Retail Boss Save It?

The giant Deutsche Bank is near bankruptcy, and, according to the Financial Times, the only way to save it would be if its retail boss, Manfred Knof, could extract €1.4bn in annual cost savings and increase revenues.

The giant Deutsche Bank is near bankruptcy, and, according to the Financial Times, the only way to save it would be if its retail boss, Manfred Knof, could extract €1.4bn in annual cost savings and increase revenues.

When did it all start?

That the Deutsche Bank is near bankruptcy is now news at all. The rumors started back in 2013 when the investment bank recognized the need for capital. To obtain those funds, they sold shares worth 4,500 euros. But that wasn´t enough and, shortly after that, they offered more shared with a 30% discount. This measure, of course, enraged those who had bought shares before.

Two years after those events, it was pretty clear that the Deutsche Bank lacked money, and it faced a net loss of almost 7,000 million euros, something that hadn´t happened since the 2008 crisis.

What put the Deutsche Bank in this situation?

According to the Professor of Economics and Law William Black, what put the Deutsche Bank near bankruptcy were the mistakes and financial crimes. He literally claimed in March 2018, that the Deutsche Bank (DB) was the “largest criminal enterprise in Germany.”

Professor’s Black words caused a huge impact, and many wouldn´t take his words seriously. However, in mid-October 2019, Chicago Federal Judge John Tharp ruled that ex-DB traders can be prosecuted for alleged “spoofing,” under the wire fraud statute. This decision will enable criminal cases against two former Deutsche Bank metal traders, accusing them of spoofing trades. Allegedly, the two men had been manipulating precious metals markets from 2009 to 2011.

Seeking solutions

In the beginning, the solution to save the Deutsche Bank, the possibility of merging it with the Commerzbank, was considered. Yet, as this other German bank had enough problems on its own, German regulators discarded the possibility since merging two entities, both with huge losses, would worsen the scenario.

Drastic measures to deal with Deutsche Bank near bankruptcy

High hopes were put into the “ruthless” retail boss Manfred Knof management, who is determined to deliver results. The recently announced decisions reducing the Executive Council, performing a rigorous restructure of the investment bank, and cutting down 18,000 job positions up to 2022, are part of the strategy of reducing costs and focusing on the activities of corporate banking, financing, currency exchange, private banking, and asset management.

Regarding most cuts, Deutsche Bank has said that most of them will affect back-office staff and support roles, located in places as distant as Florida, India, the Philippines, and Germany. This massive job cuts raised uncertainty and anxiety in all its employees, although in October 8, 2019, it was announced that the Deutsche Bank had no plans to perform further job cuts.

There´s no doubt those new and drastic measures are being taken trying to maintain the giant Deutsche Bank alive – which rather than near bankruptcy seemed to be standing at the edge of the deepest of the cliffs. Will the efforts be enough? Will “Ruthless Knof” save the monster from extinction?

Could cryptocurrency be the saviour? See also about Vatican facing bankruptcy.

Understanding Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology finds its origin in the digital coin named Bitcoin. It was invented primarily to sustain it. Although blockchain is tightly associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, these are just the top of the iceberg.

Blockchain technology finds its origin in the digital coin named Bitcoin. It was invented primarily to sustain it

Currently, blockchain technology is being used in other commercial applications, and annual growth of 51% is expected for 2022 in several markets, including financial institutions and Internet of Things (IoT).

What is blockchain technology, and what makes it secure?

A blockchain is a list of digital records or blocks of data that are stored in a linear chain that is constantly growing. It´s a kind of digital general ledger than can be shared with many users and that keeps record of every transaction. Each block contains encrypted data, for instance of a Bitcoin transaction, and is linked to the specific user that made it. There´s no way to alter the data in them since they are time-stamped and connected to the previous block.

The security of blockchain relies on the fact that it can be updated only with the agreement of all the participants and the system itself. 

The information of the whole chain is kept in each node, so each participant has an exact copy of the entire chain. If someone wanted to attack the service, he should overturn or nullify every node in the net given that just one operative node is enough for all the information to be available. 

As new records are created, these are verified and validated by the nodes and added to a new block that is linked to the chain. Once added, this block becomes unalterable. For a transaction to be accepted and added, some specific digital signatures or requirements must be met. For example, people that use the crypto-currency Ethereum, must meet several conditions to demonstrate that they have that crypto-currency and can operate with it. 

Why is blockchain useful for?

As it is a peer-to-peer network, where transactions are time-stamped, and that enables managing all the information exchange among the users in an autonomous way, without the need for an administrator, it is an excellent tool for all types of businesses. Any information that needs to be kept intact and available can be safely stored in a blockchain. 

Many industries, such as transport, fintech, and sanitary services, to mention just a few, are taking advantage of this technology that streamlines processes, improving productivity. 

Challenges organizations or companies could face with blockchain

Thanks to blockchain, the operative models and business-making models of the companies and organizations could undergo a total transformation with the adoption of blockchain technology. Many organizations are using blockchain technology for their transactions. Still, if it were massively adopted, one of the challenges that governments of extremely controlled sectors will have to solve is the lack of regulation.

Blockchain is complex, and it takes a longer time to process any transaction. It can take hours to complete a transaction. And the more it grows, the slower it gets. This could be an obstacle for specific industries.

Despite the above, the biggest challenge that blockchain technology faces is the reluctance of private and public sectors, along with the skepticism of the potential users who, as with each new technology, need time to learn, get used, and trust.  

See also about Modern Monetary Theory and Internet of People – IoP

93% of British banking bosses think it’s important to be liked

But with 90% of employees still wanting the daily grind of work improved, are bosses totally disconnected from what matters?

Nottingham, October 2019: 93% of UK bosses in the banking and finance sector think it’s important to be liked, while 90% of their staff are crying out for their day-to-day experience of work to be improved, research by People First, the HR solutions provider, has found.

Exploring the attitudes of 250 bosses and 250 employees in UK firms, the research revealed how employers lack an accurate picture of how staff feel and the way it affects their work.

84% of bosses responding think their staff are happy and 76% believe most of their employees are fully engaged in what they do. But only 64% of staff find work makes them happy and just 42% are fully engaged or absorbed in what they do to earn a living.

“Likeability is good in a boss,” said Mark Williams, Senior Vice President Product, People First. “But with so many employees in the banking and finance sector wanting their experience at work improved, you have to ask if bosses really understand their workforces. There’s obviously a happiness gap where managers believe morale is better than it really is. They are clearly failing to measure staff engagement regularly.”

The research found men are more likely to say their work really engages them (48%) than women (37%), reflecting the longstanding difference in support and career development offered to women, as well as the well-publicised gender pay-gap.

And lack of understanding plays a role in another difference between bosses and workers. Whereas 39% of employers believe most staff quit a job for emotional reasons, only 17% of employees say that’s the main cause of them handing in their notice.

From the research we can also see that more than half of UK banking and finance employees (56%) regard being rewarded for excellent work as important, while 51% want more opportunities for flexible working.

“Poor productivity is a British disease which we can cure through better understanding of what motivates employees and gets them into the flow where time flies and work is more enjoyable and fulfilling,” added Mark. “That’s why it’s important to rely on more than gut feeling about how happy or engaged staff are. Regular check-ins must replace the dated annual appraisal as only with regular conversations can an employer see the true picture of their employees.”

“There are so many different aspects to any banking and finance job, such as training, career development and flexible working, that making assumptions about what employees want is misguided. As an employer you need to know what makes your staff happy to work hard and what makes them leave.”

See also about Business Risks

About People First: People First, created by MHR International, is a revolutionary HR software platform that provides businesses with the tools and thinking to nurture and engage talent while increasing retention and driving productivity, promoting the workplace of the future – today.

Driven by innovation and sharp focus on customers’ real-world requirements, People First has developed a set of tools and a new ethos that creates a better, more productive way of working for everyone.

Using the four elements of: Flow; Personal Digital Assistant; Pragmatic People Analytics and Performance Check-ins, People First is the most effective way that any fast-growing company can optimise its workforce and create a new culture that leads to greater productivity and increased revenues.

Financial Reporting – A sketch of a Firm’s status | Ways and Uses of Report

Financial reporting refers to the exposure of the company’s finance to the stakeholders. These stakeholders are creditors, investors, the public, etc. The company’s finance report shows taxes, costs, and profits after a definite period. For this reason, you come to know the health of a firm. It does not offer more insight, though, but it is vital for a company’s success.

The main parts of a financial report are:

  • The final statements
  • Notes to financial statements
  • Quarterly and Annual Reports (listed company)
  • Prospectus
  • Management Discussion and Analysis (Public Company)
Financial reporting refers to the exposure of the company's finance to the stakeholders. These stakeholders are creditors, investors, the public, etc.

Ways of Financial Reporting

There are three ways to make financial reports:

The GAAP: GAAP is the set of book-keeping rules, and in the USA, SEC follows it. This system makes sure that the report is clear.

The IFRS: More than 110 countries use this system. The countries include Canada, China, and many others.

This system gives a global voice to business matters. Therefore they become easy to read internationally.

The GDPR: This system has a new set of rules and started on May 25, 2018. The new rules give safety to a person’s private matters.

Also, it assures that financial reports must compliant when they got sensitive data.

Financial reporting refers to the exposure of the company's finance to the stakeholders. These stakeholders are creditors, investors, the public, etc.

Uses of Financial Reporting

Financial Reporting is the need for every firm, and the stakeholders want it for many reasons. Let us see the benefits of financial reports:

Decision Making: Financial reports are a great tool to make decisions. They show all the changes that can affect the cash flow. So, you get to know how the firm collects the cash. You can make better decisions by analyzing the condition by the report.

Credit: Every business needs to lend money at any stage. So, with the help of the report, the creditor knows how much money you owe already. In short, financial reporting shows an actual image of a firm.

For Customers: It keeps the clients updated about the firm’s growth. Hence, it helps to build the client’s trust level.

Track Weakness: You can track any financial activity with the report. Thus, it helps you to tackle all potential defects by just a look. As a result, you can upgrade the health of your firm.

For Management: Financial reporting is helpful for management, as well. It can analyze the report and make better decisions for the company.

For Investors: As a report depicts the performance of a firm, the investors can make rational investment, credit, etc.

Company’s status: It helps to find where the company stands after a certain period. Hence, you find details about an increase in sales, market share, and profit.

Legal Demands: A company has to file a report to agencies like ROC, state, etc. So, financial reporting is useful in this respect.

Use of Resources: By report, the company manages the use of resources in the best way.

Verdict

In short, financial Reporting has all the reliable data about the firm. As a result, stakeholders can use the data for many plans. Also, financial reporting aids capital inflows and brings good competition.

See also: Financial Risks

Business Risks – Threats that nullify the company’s ability to meet its financial goals

The company has always exposed to uncertainties that are called business risks. They may affect a firm’s aim to gain its goals. The danger of loss is in the form of machinery breakdown, strikes, change of trends, etc.

Business risks refer to the threat to the company's ability to meet its financial goals. It indicates the risk of uncertainty or loss in profit and the risk of some eventuality in the future, which can make a business fail.

Factors Causing Business Risks

Business risks result in less profit or even loss. The factors that lead to risks can be Internal or External.

  1. Internal Business Risks: risks that arise due to some event happening within a firm are internal risks. However, the firm can control them. Internal risks occur by:
  • Technological factors
  • Human factors
  • Physical factors
  • Operational factors

Examples: New technology, fire, cost-cutting, etc.

  1. External Business Risks: External risks occur by any event happening outside the firm. However, the firm’s management cannot control them. The factors that lead to external risks are:
  • Natural factors
  • Economic factors
  • Political factors

Examples: Floods, price pressure, riots, etc.

Types of Business Risks

Risks have divided into five kinds:

  1. Strategic Risk: The risks associated with business operations are strategic risks. They arise when the business plans fail. Poor business decisions lead to failure, e.g., marketing risk, project risk, competitive risk, etc.
  2. Financial Risks: These risks related to business events and finance. It adds to shareholders by debt financing, along with equity.

For example, there can be losses by movement in stock prices, interest rates, etc.

  1. Operational Risks: These risks linked with official procedures of a business. There is a failure to connect to internal policies.

For example, some events like frauds, computer hacking, etc. affect a company’s daily activities

  1. Compliance Risks: Such risks occur by state rules and commands. When the company fails to follow laws, it has to face legal penalties. These risks ensure that the firm runs justly.

For example, corrupt practices, social responsibility, etc.

  1. Reputation Risks: The negative publicity of a firm/product leads to this risk. There is a chance that a company’s name can damage.

For example, a mobile company issues a phone that breaks easily. But then it markets a new and better model.

Business risks refer to the threat to the company's ability to meet its financial goals. It indicates the risk of uncertainty or loss in profit and the risk of some eventuality in the future, which can make a business fail.

Ways to Manage Business Risks

You can plan to manage the exposure of risks.

  • Mitigate the risk: You need to keep a contingency plan. In case if the risk materializes, you must have a second plan to follow.
  • Avoid the risk: It’s better to avoid than to bear a loss. Sometimes the launch of a product leads to affect the company financially. You can postpone it until your company stabilizes.
  • Transfer the risk: You can pass financial risks to someone else. For instance, fire insurance is the best example of it.
  • Accept the risk: If the risks are likely to happen, you can opt for small damage. So, examine the other option and make the right decision to accept the risk.

Business risks lead to uncertainties, but a good businessman takes them as a challenge. Risks lead to new clients and more sales. You can, however, manage to minimize the worst to happen.

See also about Financial Riska Management

Global Lending Automation Platform Trade Ledger Announces £1.5m Funding Round Led by Hambro Perks

The world’s first open banking business Lending-as-a-Service platform has completed a £1.5m funding round led by Hambro Perks, the leading UK early-stage venture firm.

Martin-McCann-CEO-Trade-Ledger
Martin McCann CEO Trade Ledger

London, 30 October 2019 – Trade Ledger, the ground-breaking business lending platform, which automates commercial lending processes for global banks and alternative finance providers, today announces strategic investment in a £1.5M round led by Hambro Perks, to further accelerate revenue growth.

Established in 2016 and now operating on three continents, Trade Ledger’s unique lend-tech platform automates all types of digital business finance, helping bank and non-bank business lending organisations alike to fast-track economic growth through process automation and scaling of business credit operations. Trade Ledger uses financial data APIs (often referred to as Open Banking), Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation technologies to enhance or replace old and costly legacy bank systems for origination, credit decisioning, take on and loan management, enabling new cutting-edge working capital solutions for business customers. The resulting new lending solutions can reduce the time-to-cash from 90 days which is the industry average to 4 minutes and are better tailored to the working capital needs of modern high-growth businesses. 

Trade Ledger’s co-founder, Martin McCann, and his team believe that transforming business lending operations through the Trade Ledger Lending Platform is the single biggest area of opportunity for commercial banks and financial services organisations to benefit from Open Banking in the near future. “There is a £1.2 trillion gap in credit that businesses need to optimise growth which is why we created this lend-tech”, explained McCann. “We believe that only by reimagining new types of credit services only possible with this lend-tech, can banks solve this massive business problem profitably and at scale globally. By leveraging open trade data via APIs alongside other enterprise-grade enabling technologies, financial institutions can drive significant operational efficiencies and product innovation within their internal operations and dramatically increase market share.”

“My co-founder Matt and I launched Trade Ledger in 2016 to improve the business customer’s experience in their financial supply chain, by helping banks re-imagine the entire process”, continued Martin McCann. “With the increasing threat of big technology firms like Google, Amazon and Alibaba bridging the gap between traditional financial services and the supply-chain eco-system, incumbent banks and lenders must start thinking about how they remain relevant. Trade Ledger is currently the only true platform in the world that can help them do this at a global scale in the business lending sector.”

George Davies, Partner at Hambro Perks added: “We are delighted to be backing Trade Ledger as Martin, Matt and the Trade Ledger team continue to develop market-leading tech that benefits businesses around the world. Hambro Perks is committed to supporting brilliant founders and teams that are building global businesses, and we believe that Trade Ledger has enormous global potential. We are very excited about Trade Ledger’s rapid growth and to support Martin and Matt as they tackle the barriers that have created such a vast undersupply of working capital for businesses across the globe.”

The Trade Ledger Platform provides a complete innovation layer that masks the clunky traditional corporate business banking environment and delivers an excellent consumer-like experience. Trade Ledger supports compliance with new regulatory requirements through aggregation and normalisation of better credit risk data whilst underpinning the wider commercialisation of open data and adoption of new banking business models to generate new revenue streams. The platform orchestrates value in the lending ecosystem by moving organisations from process-led engagement to an automated data-driven lending model.

About Trade Ledger

Trade Ledger (www.tradeledger.io) is the world’s first open banking lending platform that gives banks the ability to assess business lending risk in real-time. This will enable banks to address the £1.2 trillion of undersupply in trade finance lending globally while providing high-growth companies with the working capital needed to sustain growth.

About Hambro Perks

Hambro Perks (www.hambroperks.com)  is a London based venture firm that backs and builds leading technology companies. Founded by Dominic Perks and Rupert Hambro CBE, Hambro Perks invests at an early stage and helps companies to scale with capital and strategic support. The firm invests from both its permanent capital and Co-Investment EIS Fund that is open to high net worth investors and is soon to launch other funds. Hambro Perks has backed more than 40 businesses such as the digital pharmacy Echo, the geocoding system What3Words, and the Muslim matchmaking app Muzmatch.

Election 2019: Expect the pound and UK financial assets to be increasingly volatile

The pound and UK financial assets will be volatile in the run-up to Britain’s first December general election since 1923 – and will remain so in the event of another hung parliament.

This is the warning from Nigel Green, CEO and founder of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, as Labour announces it is now backing the government’s bill for a December election, regardless of the date.

Mr Green comments: “This is a critical stage in the slow-moving, damaging, torturous Brexit saga.

“Expect the pound and UK financial assets to be increasingly volatile in the run-up to the general election, given the wide-ranging set of outcomes.

“The most detrimental of these outcomes for sterling, UK financial assets and the wider British economy, include another hung parliament or a victory for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party.”

He continues: “Boris Johnson’s intention to secure a majority within the House of Commons is by no means guaranteed.  

“The Brexit Party will use the fact that Mr Johnson did not deliver Brexit by October 31 – something on which he staked his whole premiership. 

“The Remain vote could also be split between Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens and the SNP. 

“Political fragmentation on this scale has never happened before in the UK.

“Therefore, a hung parliament looks like an alarming possibility, meaning there could be no majority to quickly and smoothly resolve the Brexit chaos.

“Should grinding deadlock continue, the UK economy would still haemorrhage investment and confidence. The fallout of Brexit has cost the UK three and a half years of lost opportunity and many, many tens of billions of pounds. This would only intensify with another hung parliament.”

He adds: “Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party will campaign on the most radical, left-wing manifesto in more than a generation.

“Should he win this election, his anti free-market policies – such as the re-nationalisation of industries from utilities to railways to postal services, and the forcing of companies to give 10% of their shares to staff – plus his high-tax policies, including a possible wealth tax, will spook the financial markets, hit long-term sustainable growth of the British economy, put more pressure on UK financial assets, and lead to a significant sell-off of the pound.

Mr Green concludes: “The general election is set to be the most contentious and uncertain in generations. Investors now need to protect and build their wealth and assets by ensuring they are properly diversified across asset classes, sectors, currencies and regions.”

deVere Group is one of the world’s largest independent advisors of specialist global financial solutions to international, local mass affluent, and high-net-worth clients.  It has a network of more than 70 offices across the world, over 80,000 clients and $12bn under advisement