October 2009
Market commentary
October 2009 – patience still a virtue
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September 2009
Half yearly receivables
review 2009
When the going gets tough…
Read more |
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August 2009
The search
for Stanford’s billions
How Vantis Business
Recovery Services is handling the sensitive fallout from the
Stanford International Bank case
Read more |
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June 2009
Business Money
Plus
launches
16th birthday
celebration event
at Business Money
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May 2009
Internet
Sales
The way forward
Read more
April 2009
The Banking Act
Radford
Goodman, partner,
Norton Rose LLP guides us through its provisions.
Read more
March 2009
Colin
Haig interview
Does PwC just do the big ones?
The editor tackled Colin Haig
Read more
February
2009
Trade finance
The Business Money annual review
Read more...
January 2009
Commercial Mortgage Review
Only a few standing up to be
counted
Read more...
December 2008
Worldwide factoring report 2008
We asked our friends in the International Factors Group to
let us have their thoughts on progress made through 2008 and
the prospects for 2009
Read more...
What’s in the financial future?
November 2008
Nic Beishon, head of commercial information solutions at
Equifax looks ahead to 2009 for a hint of things to come
Read more...
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October 2008
Missing the point
Governments turn to academics on important issues
yet The Illusions of Entrepreneurship by Scott
Shane, an American university professor, is
potentially damaging in its apparent
misunderstanding of small business and the vital
role start-ups play in an efficient and free society
Read more... |
Half yearly receivables review
2008
September 2008
The CEOs report on the progress of their companies through the first
six months of a challenging year
Read more...
Banks suffer as fraud rides
high
August 2008
KPMG Forensic’s fraud barometer registers some alarming
statistics
Banks have been the main targets of a major spike in fraud
coming to court in the first six months of 2008, according to KPMG
Forensic’s Fraud Barometer. Over £630m of fraud came to court across
128 cases, substantially up from £421m across 91 cases in the
previous six month period, and of that more than half, £350m, was
against the financial sector. KPMG has warned that the figures are
likely to get worse as the full impact of the credit crunch unfolds.
Read more...
How strong is your lending
covenant?
July 2008
All too often lenders are
prepared to accept what they are told about pensions but accurate
and realistic assessment is
essential.
When it comes to lending money to a
business or financing a corporate transaction, it’s pretty
important to be able to get a good feel for its value to
identify the risk exposure.
Read more...
Fighting back
June 2008
Suppliers see light at the end of the tunnel.
As Britain’s supermarket giants continue to use their size to
hammer down the prices paid to their suppliers, Martin Williams,
managing director of Graydon UK, a leading credit reference agency,
explains how suppliers can fight back in what doesn’t necessarily
need to be an abusive relationship with the big retail players.
Read more...
No quick fixes
May 2008
A storm is engulfing the UK’s high
streets and supermarkets; is our retail industry strong enough to
ride it out?
Read more...
Business bank
charges 1993-2008
April 2008
Business bank charges have long been a source of contention,
though often more so with people who have nothing to do with
business. The Cruickshank report was a classic example of how
governments tilt at windmills in this regard. Not only was the
exercise a complete waste of time in that it revealed little, it
also gave us a chilling foretaste as to the commercial ineptitude of
Gordon Brown.
Read More...
Between a rock and a hard
place
March 2008
What are the likely
repercussions if the government is found to be breaching European
law as far as the nationalisation of Northern Rock is concerned?
Business Money talks to Nigel Frudd, head of financial services
division, Rosenblatt Solicitors
Read More...
Global CEO survey
February 2008
CEOs’ confidence
about prospects for business declined for the first time
since 2003 and fear of a global recession emerged as the
major threat to growth in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ eleventh
Annual Global CEO Survey. Compared to last year, possible
economic downturn is the only risk factor to increase in
concern among CEOs. All other risks to growth, including
energy supply, global climate change and terrorism, declined
as business threats. Over-regulation and availability of
talent were also top CEO concerns.
Read
more...
The scandal of our
SME sector
January 2008
Abominable, cynical treatment by an ignorant, grasping
government that depends upon it for so much of our national wealth –
it needs good bankers, and now. Our annual review of business
banking looks at its target market.
Read more...
Worldwide factoring report
December 2007
We asked our friends in
International Factors Group to let us have their thoughts on
progress made through 2007 and the prospects
for 2008
Read more...
Christmas box
December 2007
What would managing directors like for
Christmas for
their business?
Most managing directors
would be delighted to have the chance to sit on Santa’s knee and
give him a list of things to courier over by reindeer express on
Christmas morning for their business. So what would they hope to
find in their Christmas stocking? Bonnie Yuill went to find out.
Read more
Undisclosed commission payments at the end of the road
The recent ruling by the Court of Appeal
in Wilson v Hurstanger Limited finally shines some bright,
and irresistible, light into the murky area of undisclosed
commission to intermediaries. If 15 years ago this was the
norm, sums even changing hands in cash in brown envelopes
passed on in motorway service area car parks, the regulatory
mood of the day now calls for complete transparency.
Read more
Cashflow
Partners in receivership
A sad end for a Scottish family firm
October 2007
There are many reasons why I pick up the
pen to write this tale with a heavy heart.
The first is that I have known the Russell family, father
and son, David and Robin, for most of the time I have been
publishing Business Money. They are people whose
company I enjoy and, notwithstanding a natural reserve when
we first appeared in 1993 and sought information some might
regard as privy to the directors, they have always been
hospitable and forthcoming.
Read More
Home-working
A license to loaf?
September 2007
Working from home may just sound like a
license to loaf, but for many large and successful
businesses it’s not only employee-friendly but earns
valuable brownie points for green awareness. It also means
that recruitment for any post can be countrywide. Could it
be the way forward for modern businesses? I went to find
out.
Read More
Breaking up is
hard to do…
Resolving failing business partnerships
August 2007
When friends, family or colleagues decide
to set up in business together, they might think it’s a case
of til retirement do us part, but it’s not just reaching for
the pension book that can spell the end of a commercial
partnership. Many businesses fail long before the partners
reach the age of 60, yet few new start-ups even consider
putting in place procedures to deal with the dissolution, or
change of their business if things should go wrong. Here,
John McBride, location director of Vantis McBrides looks at
some of the routes to resolving failing business
partnerships.
Read More
Factoring in Russia
The factoring market potential in world’s
largest
country is huge
July 2007
Although factoring has only been available in
the Russian market since about 1998, it has already grown to about
$10bn per year in value of invoices assignments, representing about
1% of GDP at the end of 2006. Many banks have started to invest in
factoring operations in the last two to three years but just the top
six factoring companies and banks account for some 80% of the
factoring business. The top two account for 50% of the factoring
business in Russia, these are Eurokommerz and NFC (National
Factoring Company). NFC is a licensed bank whilst Eurokommerz is
completely independent.
Read
More
Commercial Property Credit Insurance
Safeguarding income and financial obligations
June 2007
The UK property market is expected to continue
with its increase in activity. Growth is being enjoyed nationally, primarily
through the London market driving rental increases. Many regional
areas like Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester are benefiting
from this. Rental increases last year grew by 24% in the City and
12% in the West End of London. Many analysts in the property world
believe that office space in the City will continue its upward
advance and we could see space being leased for more than £70 per
square foot.
Read More
Credit
and debit card factoring hits Europe
Merchant Cash Express Limited
May 2007
A fresh source of capital is
now available to businesses where a high proportion of their
settlements are received through card channels. The model is well
established in America, this is, as far as I am aware, its first
application in Europe.
Read
More
Working smart
Turnover in the UK’s
recruitment industry has recently hit the highest levels on
record but the challenge of recruiting quality staff seems
to show no signs of abating
April 2007
So what are the pressures on the
recruitment companies to keep up with the changes?
“The fortunes of our industry are inextricably linked
to the overall health of the UK economy GDP,” reported
Marcia Roberts, the Recruitment and Employment
Confederation’s friendly new CEO. “Most other economic
indicators remained relatively strong for the period of the
survey and this year’s annual turnover report reflects this
picture.”
Read More
Paper tiger to roaring
dragon
Jonathan Wooller has spent 15 years doing business in China
–
he has seen many changes
March 2007
It has taken a mere 15 years – a blink of
an eye – to see the paper tiger transform itself into the
roaring dragon that is the new China. Innovation and
manufacturing capacity has always been the mainstay of the
country with its competitive edge in the world riding on the
back of its low cost economy and vast labour force. But
beware, because this dragon has real teeth, and the
transformation in the technology offering, quality and
inward investment has left other more established economies
green with envy, with a flood of new businesses fighting to
establish themselves on the Chinese mainland.
Read More
SET and the City
The
financial community needs to be aware of the opportunities
available for wealth creation from science, engineering and
technology if it wants
to stay competitive in global markets
February 2007
Gordon Brown is on record as
saying “Britain will only have a competitive edge if we develop
world leadership in the most technologically intensive and
science-based industries and services.”
Read More
The
Competition Commission enquiry
Unsurprisingly few surprises
February 2007
The Competition
Commission’s inquiry into the UK grocery market has so far smacked
of anti-climax. The growing band of vociferous journalists,
lobbyists, “think tanks” and quangos ganging up on the major grocery
retailers were left disappointed that the “Emerging Thinking”
document published in early January did not signal any major
criticism or clampdown on their objects of ire. In fact, the whole
document was much softer in tone than the press had led us to
believe it might be.
Read More
40 years in the
life of Brian
Brian Sumner, managing director
of Ultimate Finance, reflects on his
40 years in the invoice
discounting and factoring industry, and looks
to the future.
January 2007
My introduction to the invoice finance market
came at the tender age of 19, when I joined the cash department of
Goode Durrant and Murray Ltd, where they were pioneering a
particular form of selective invoice discounting. Over the next two
years I rose through the ranks until I reached the elevated position
of sales representative with a car and a whole country to sell a
product that no one had heard of. They hadn’t heard of factoring
either at that time I might add!
Read More
