Lyft is preparing its IPO. The ridesharing giant, dwarfed only by its counterpart, Uber, is said to be eyeing a valuation between $20 and $30 billion. Uber, whose IPO will likely be happening later this year is said to be valued 4x higher, at approximately $120 billion. As Lyft revealed its financials ahead of its upcoming IPO, it has become clear that no definitive path to achieving profitability has been […]

Since the UK’s vote to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, the debate around the impact of Brexit on the financial services industry has largely centred around ‘passporting rights’. Financial institutions and banks, amongst others, are rightfully concerned as Brexit poses a threat to their current ability to sell financial services and products across Europe with minimal additional authorisations. As the 29th March 2019 deadline looms, Brexit continues to […]

You may have heard the ‘gig economy’ being thrown around in recent articles and on the news but what does it mean? What do gigs have to do with the economy? Has there been an increase in concerts lately? Have One Direction finally gotten back together?* Although you would be forgiven for assuming so, the gig economy actually has nothing to do with the musical type of gigs. The gig […]

Saudi Arabia – a G20 country which sets the record for having the biggest oil reserves in the world – is increasingly being defined as one of the hottest emerging markets of the moment. What’s behind the Kingdom’s recent popularity are the numerous reforms (both social and economic) that the Saudis aim at introducing in the next decade. Their main objective is to diversify their oil-dependent economy and make it […]

Take your mind back 10 years to the financial crisis. US banks gave out a flurry of subprime mortgages, created collateralized debt obligations, house prices fell and interest rates rose, and then the bubble burst. Subprime borrowers could not meet the higher interest rates, the defaults flooded in and banks were faced with serious liquidity problems. Despite the Feds best efforts, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Indymac collapsed, Bear Stearns […]