- German Investment Funds Association has stated that it wants ‘unhindered access’ to the investment services provided by the City of London after the UK leaves the EU. Separately, the French financial regulator has said it will not seek changes to ‘delegation’ rules, a move that might have restricted UK fund managers serving overseas clients after Brexit
- NatWest has been ordered to pay compensation to a couple after they were recommended a bond that was unsuitable for them. The Financial Ombudsman adjudicator said the complaint should succeed because the couple were not made aware of the how much of a risk they were taking and the letter issued to them did not explain fully how the Guaranteed Capital Bond worked
- dabbl, the UK’s first app-only share buying service launched two months ago, has announced that over 40% of all the trades placed on the app so far have been done by those aged 35 or under
- Brex, which has designed a corporate card designed to help start-ups qualify based on funding instead of their credit history, has raised $57m in a Series B funding led by Y Combinator Continuity. PayPal founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin participated in the funding round, alongside Yuri Milner of Ribbit Capital and former Visa CEO Carl Pascarella
- PayPal has agreed to acquire Hyperwallet for $400m in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2018
- IW Capital research has found that 38% of investors do not or would not trust an automated investment programme to manage a proportion of their investable assets. The report, ‘Investments in 2018: The Human Factor’, suggests 17% of investors believe automated advisers are low risk and do not deliver returns, and 56% say they need human interaction ‘to feel safe about an investment of any sort
- Boston Consulting Group has said that wealth management is in the early stages of a complete transformation and predicted that firms that focus on revenue will flourish. The report also says that most wealth management clients are not that sensitive to fees and are more interested in overall satisfaction
