• McKinsey research has found that European private banks have suffered a 10% decrease in profits in 2016, the first annual fall since 2009. The decline in profits was attributed to a slowdown in new cash inflows, poor investment returns and a failure to control increasing costs
  • Barclays Wealth report has suggested that one in 79 Britons over the age of 21 is now a millionaire due to the rise in house prices. Britain now has 625,000 millionaires, the highest level on record, with the number of people worth at least £1m having increased by 44,000 over the past 12 months and by 142,500 since 2010.
  • Habito, the online mortgage broker, has raised £18.5m in a series B funding round led by Atomico. Habito combines artificial intelligence with human expertise to analyse more than 20,000 mortgage products across 70 lenders in real time, allowing customers to complete their entire applications online.
  • Peter Hargreaves, the co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, has become a partner in wealth management start-up Blue Whale Capital and invested £25m into the firm
  • SEI Wealth Platform has reported that it is currently talking to 16 private banks and wealth managers who are looking to outsource their back-office operations, with particular interest from mid-tier wealth management businesses
  • Baillie Gifford has announced fee reductions in 40 unit trusts, with some reductions as big as ten basis points