He added that the Business Department was “looking at the right protections” for savers since the peer-to-peer market is unregulated.
“There is a need to strike a balance between investor protection and opening up the opportunities for business.”
Funding Circle confirmed it would apply for some of the £100m, which is available to alternative lenders which service companies with revenues of less than £75m.
Co founder Samir Desai said: “We actually see it as quite a small amount of money compared to where we believe we can get to. We’re doing more than a £1m a week in terms of lending. There’s a lot of potential to grow the business and these funds would just help us fund more loans.”
Market Invoice, an ‘eBay for invoices’ website for small firms, is also expected to submit a proposal.
Separately, the Treasury confirmed that ‘angel investors’ in growing companies will receive a tax break worth an estimated £125m, after Brussels agreed the expansion of incentives for backers of small businesses.
The Government is hoping the EU’s clearance of its “huge expansion” of the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) will provide an additional £240m a year in capital for small companies by 2016.
For both schemes, businesses employing up to 250 staff will now qualify, up from the previous limit 50, while companies are now allowed to take up to £5m in investment a year, up from £2m.
Chancellor George Osborne had originally promised a £10m investment limit, but this was halved in this year’s budget. It is thought the revision was designed to ensure the changes didn’t fall foul of EU state aid rules.
Brussels also cleared an increase on the EIS and VCT gross assets limit of qualifying companies from £7m to £15m.
Mr Gauke said that Britain now has the most generous tax regime for backers of small firms of any country in the EU.
“This will make a big contribution to driving growth,” he said. “The fact that the scheme has gone from 50 employees to 250 employees means it covers an awful lot of businesses. It will bring more investment [from existing angel investors] and new investors are now likely to see backing small businesses as more attractive.”
“HM Revenue & Customs has been inundated with enquiries from early stage companies. The early stages are encouraging.”
The changes to EIS and VCT are expected to cost the Treasury an annual £125m by 2016.
Mexico Finance Minister says not worried by peso volatility - Reuters UK
MEXICO CITY |
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade brushed off concerns about a slump in the peso to a six-month low on Wednesday, and said the currency would rebound once concerns about Europe's debt troubles ebb.
Mexico's peso has shed more than 11 percent since mid-March, hurt by fears that Europe's sovereign debt woes are worsening.
Meade said that once concerns about Europe calm down, the peso should retrace its losses to trade where it was before fears mounted that Greece might leave the euro zone. He also dismissed the need for a more active defense of the local currency.
"If this uncertainty disappears, we would expect the peso's equilibrium would be very similar to the equilibrium we saw before these elements of uncertainty were in the market," Meade said at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit.
On Wednesday, the peso lost as much as 2 percent against the dollar to touch 14.1660, its weakest since the end of November. The peso had been trading stronger than 13 per dollar in February and March.
The Mexican peso is one of the most liquid emerging market currencies and its sharp slump has tracked a downturn in global markets due to concerns that debt troubles in the euro zone could spark another global financial crisis.
"What we have, and what will end up setting the value of our currency, is an economy where exports are growing, an economy where consumption and investment are growing," Meade said.
Other emerging markets such as Brazil and India have resorted to ad hoc market interventions to defend their currencies.
Mexico, one of the biggest proponents of free markets among emerging economies, has a transparent auction mechanism to sell up to $400 million when the peso loses more than 2 percent from the previous day's fix price, a mid-session reference.
STRONGER FOOTING
Meade said that Mexico still believed European policymakers would avoid a messy breakup with Greece and prevent contagion from spreading to other weaker European countries.
But in case Europe's troubles take a greater toll on the global economy, Meade said Mexico is in a strong position after tripling its emergency funds since 2008.
The central bank has amassed international reserves worth more than $154 billion and the country has the protection of a flexible credit line with the International Monetary Fund.
"We have solid structural conditions," Meade said. "We are certainly better prepared to face (a global crisis) than we were when we did not have these elements of strength."
Meade said the government's projection of 3.5 percent economic growth this year was "very well anchored," adding that U.S. growth was supporting Mexico. He said the growth outlook could be revised upwards if concerns about Europe fade.
"The environment that Mexico has today and the environment that surrounds us in the United States offer some bit of certainty," he said. Mexico sends nearly 80 percent of its exports to its northern neighbor.
Still, in the event of a deeper global downturn, Meade said Mexico will not be able to provide much fiscal stimulus to the economy. But he said the central bank could lower its benchmark rate from 4.50 percent, where it has held since mid-2009.
"Surely, as in the rest of the world, there could be space within monetary policy to construct a more accommodative environment if a scenario occurs that threatens growth," he said.
Mexico's 2012 budget limits this year's deficit to 0.4 percent of gross domestic product.
The finance ministry said on Wednesday that Mexico's public sector ran a fiscal surplus of 8.2 billion pesos in April. The country has racked up a deficit of 43.4 billion pesos so far this year, keeping it on track to meet its budget limit, the ministry said.
Meade said concerns about the health of Spanish banks would not spill over into Mexico. Subsidiaries of Spanish banks BBVA (BBVA.MC) and Santander (SAN.MC) are two of Mexico's top banks, but Meade said they were well capitalized.
(Additional reporting by Krista Hughes and Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Government to give £100m to alternative lenders - BBC News
The government is planning £100m in funding for alternative lenders, including new internet finance firms.
It is part of £500m being made available to small and medium sized firms through the government's Business Finance Partnership.
So called peer-to-peer lenders are expected to be big beneficiaries. They use the internet to match businesses with investors with money to loan
One such firm, Funding Circle, is applying for £30m of government money.
Funding Circle is proposing creating an account for the government that would allow government money to join funds from thousands of other potential lenders.
Samir Desai, chief executive of Funding Circle said: "We lend to the gazelles of the economy, smaller and medium sized growth businesses that have been established for at least 3 years."
Marketinvoice is also planning to apply for £30m. It has a slightly different business model that allows companies to raise funds from outstanding invoices.
Winning government funding would be a huge boost for both companies
Anil Stocker, co-founder of Marketinvoice said: "We've always said the biggest barrier to alternative finance is awareness, so the government standing behind the non-bank lenders shows we mean business and we can reset the funding landscape."
Both firms say that they would offer a good return for the taxpayer.
Funding Circle vets borrowers and, through its account, the government would contribute 25-33% of a loan request.
"Our investors are currently, on average, receiving a gross yield of 8.5% so it's an attractive investment product," said Mr Desai.
In a statement Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "As businesses are continuing to struggle to get credit from their banks, developing alternative lending channels is essential so firms are less reliant on banks.
"Our aim is to create a more diverse financial infrastructure which better serves the needs of our small and medium-sized companies."
FOREX-Euro falls 1 pct vs U.S. dollar to near 2-year low - Reuters India
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
Royal Academy of Music finance chief who swindled £100,000 from school for her pension fund jailed for 20 months - Daily Mail
|
Janet Whitehouse at her court appearance at Westminster Magistrates court earlier this month, today she was sentenced at crown court
She was once hailed as the saviour of the Royal Academy of Music after rescuing the prestigious college from financial ruin.
Janet Whitehouse, 56, was considered an employee of ‘impeccable good character’ after working as its finance director for almost 20 years.
But behind the respectable facade, she was siphoning off hundreds of thousands of pounds to boost her own pension pot.
The finance chief, who earned more than 100,000 a year, swindled the college out of 236,000 over a four-year period because she was jealous of the final salary pensions that other directors enjoyed.
Whitehouse owned a 1million property portfolio in London including a luxury penthouse overlooking the Thames. She also arranged for her son to live rent-free at a flat in Marylebone owned by the academy, saving him 33,600.
Yesterday the mother-of-two broke down in tears as she was jailed for 20 months for fraud.
Southwark Crown Court heard the high-flyer, who won a businesswoman of the year award in 1997, was appointed to the highest position of trust within the academy which trains soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians, conductors, opera singers and composers.
The accountant, who was initially employed part-time in 1992 before becoming finance director in 1998, saved the charity from ruin in the mid-1990s when its finances were in a perilous state.
But secretly she was envious of colleagues’ pensions and stole money to top up her own pension which was not in the final salary scheme, the court heard.
The Aurora Orchestra plays at the Royal Academy of Music: the charity school offers training for soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians, conductors, opera singers and composers
She paid three lump sums into her pension fund, falsely claiming the payments had been approved by college chairman Lord Terence Burns between March 2007 and January 2011. A further 104,000 was submitted in ‘wholly bogus’ invoices by Whiteley Associates, a company which she and her ex-husband were directors of, for work she claimed to have carried out.
Prosecutor Antony Swift said the fraud came to light in August 2010 following a second, unconnected fraud, which prompted the academy to carry out a full audit. Whitehouse then panicked and faked letters purporting to be from senior staff agreeing to the transactions and later tried to get a colleague to destroy the evidence.
Mr Swift said: ‘She had purported to be entitled to receive additional payments into her pension.’ When she was arrested last year, Whitehouse’s life ‘disintegrated’.
Earlier this month she pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud.
Neil Saunders, defending, said Whitehouse had taken the money because she was worried about financial security. He said: ‘The catalyst appears to have been that her father was taken seriously ill before passing away in 2007.
‘It appears that it is about this time she felt under huge pressure that she did not have a secure final salary pension unlike her colleagues.’ He quoted a statement by Whitehouse in which she admitted: ‘I was too embarrassed to ask so instead I took the money. It was really bad of me.’ Mr Saunders said she was of ‘impeccable good character’ and had rescued the 190-year-old academy.
The Royal Academy of Music counts Annie Lennox and Sir Elton John among its alumni
‘Her expertise and hard work put it back on its feet when it was at a stage where it could have essentially ended all its history and existence,’ he said. ‘This is not an excuse for what she later did and she apologised to everyone at the academy for letting them down and for how truly sorry she is.
‘She deeply regrets her actions and the position she has now found herself in. What she has done has brought her name, her family and the name of the academy into disrepute.’ Whitehouse sobbed and mouthed ‘I love you’ to her partner as she was jailed.
Judge Deborah Taylor said: ‘You were appointed in 1998 to a position of the highest trust as the director of finance and administration at the Royal Academy of Music and you abused that trust by committing serious offences over a period of three-and-a-half years to enrich yourself and benefit your family by three different means.
‘There is no doubt you have worked hard for the benefit of the academy and it is never pleasant to sentence someone of your obvious quality and ability who has suffered such a fall from grace. However, you used your skills to plan and cover up three serious wrongdoings.’
Yesterday a spokesman for the academy said Whitehouse had repaid 319,465 following her resignation in March last year.
Detective Inspector Andrew Fleming, of Westminster police, said: ‘Janet Whitehouse seemed to be a pillar of society.
‘However, perhaps the worst aspect in fraud cases such as this is the complete breach of trust by a longstanding member of staff.’
I am a student at the academy and can say that it is truly the best place you can be. However, I will come out with over 40,000 of debt and the fact she can just take money that could be spent on scholarships or other things that can benefit the students, without anyone noticing is totally wrong and quite frankly disappointing
- Anon, London, 31/5/2012 02:34
Report abuse