Finance Job Vacancies in London Plummet 54% Year-on-Year

Finance Job Vacancies in London Plummet 54% Year-on-Year

LONDON(Capital Markets in Africa) — Job vacancies in London’s finance industry slumped 54% in the third quarter compared to 2019 as uncertainty around coronavirus, Brexit and bank profits discouraged hiring. City firms were advertising 3,810 roles in the three months through September, according to data from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley published Monday. While this is a fraction of the opportunities available in previous years, the total has risen from 2,490 three months earlier, when the U.K. was…

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U.K. Prepared to Rewrite Lawbreaking Brexit Bill to Get EU Deal

U.K. Prepared to Rewrite Lawbreaking Brexit Bill to Get EU Deal

LONDON(Capital Markets in Africa) — British officials are prepared to water down Boris Johnson’s controversial lawbreaking Brexit legislation in a move that could revive failing talks with the European Union, according to people familiar with the matter. The pound rose. Negotiations over the two sides’ future relationship have stalled, with the prime minister announcing on Friday that he will focus on preparations to leave the EU’s single market and customs union at the year-end without a trade…

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U.S. Bank Climate Disclosures Seen as Too Narrow to Reflect Risk

U.S. Bank Climate Disclosures Seen as Too Narrow to Reflect Risk

NEW YORK(Capital Markets in Africa) — U.S. banks are taking too narrow of an approach when disclosing their exposure to climate risk and are potentially underestimating possible losses, according to a report released Monday. Bank disclosures tend to focus on direct loans to the fossil-fuel sector or the electricity industry, but their exposure is much broader, Ceres, a non-profit organization focused on sustainability, said in its report. More than half of banks’ syndicated-lending portfolios carry…

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Amazon Fake Reviews Reach Holiday Season Levels During Pandemic

Amazon Fake Reviews Reach Holiday Season Levels During Pandemic

NEW YORK(Capital Markets in Africa) — Fake reviews on Amazon.com Inc. during the pandemic have reached levels typically seen during the holiday shopping season. About 42% of 720 million Amazon reviews assessed by the monitoring service Fakespot Inc. from March through September were unreliable, up from about 36% for the same period last year. The rise in fake reviews corresponded with the stampede online of millions of virus-avoiding shoppers. “We’ve only seen those kinds of numbers in…

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Countdown to Election Tests Emerging-Market Bulls’ Resilience

Countdown to Election Tests Emerging-Market Bulls’ Resilience

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — This month’s emerging-market rally is showing signs of faltering as investors refrain from placing big bets in the final two weeks of the U.S. election campaign. Even as Democrat Joe Biden has widened his lead over President Donald Trump in recent polls, a Bank of America Corp. survey showed global fund managers expect the outcome to be contested and are ready for extreme market turbulence. While growing odds that Democrats will…

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Currency Revamp Spurs Rush for New Bank Accounts in Ethiopia

Currency Revamp Spurs Rush for New Bank Accounts in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) — Ethiopia’s effort to stamp out counterfeiting by introducing new currency notes is pulling people who’ve never had a bank account into the financial system. At least 1.3 million previously unbanked Ethiopians have handed in their two-decade-old banknotes over the past month since the demonetization process was started, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told lawmakers on Monday. In exchange, they were given a bank account from which they can draw…

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South Africa’s Track Record Bodes Ill for Investment Drive

South Africa’s Track Record Bodes Ill for Investment Drive

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in  Africa) — South Africa will be hard-pressed to realize its ambitions of attracting 1 trillion rand ($61 billion) of private investment in infrastructure if its past record is anything to go by. The investment drive began two years ago and is a key component of an economic blueprint unveiled by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week that aims to revive the coronavirus-battered economy. It envisions the government spending 100 billion rand on infrastructure, an…

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