Financial institutions are increasingly embracing a ‘digital revolution’, according to analysis by global fintech group Broadridge. The report, Digital Transformation Enters a New Phase – Here’s What Comes Next, found more than half of participants saying digital transformation was the most-important strategic initiative for their company, with almost three-quarters (71%) suggesting AI had changed how…
Berlin-based firm Upvest has signed a partnership with BlackRock to open up Europe’s investment landscape to retail investors. Upvest said BlackRock had participated in its €30m 2023 funding round alongside existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, HV Capital, Earlybird, Notion Capital, ABN Amro Ventures and 10x Capital. The company added that its Investment API helps institutions…
Increasingly tight regulatory regimes around Europe are making the landscape around foreign direct investment (FDI) harder to navigate. That is the view posited by law firm Ashurst in its newly released Foreign Investment in Europe: A World of Opportunity report, looking at the new and various hurdles that have been put in place. “In recent…
Venture capital (VC) money flowing into Europe has “skyrocketed” in recent years, according to Invest Europe, formerly the European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association. The body’s Venture Capital: Fuelling Innovation Report found venture capitalists had invested more than €96bn in almost 27,000 European companies over the last decade, with €18bn of that coming in…
Franklin Templeton has announced a raft of senior appointments across its global distribution network. Matt Harrison has been appointed head of Europe and UK distribution; Tariq Ahmad is to become head of APAC distribution; Sandeep Singh will be head of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) and India distribution; and Julian Ide…
Europe is in danger of falling behind the US and China in the field of climate-related technology, a report from Allianz has warned. According to Climate tech – the missing piece in the net-zero puzzle, public investment will not be enough to meet a growing gap, with “significant private investment” necessary alongside a common EU…
The Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) has predicted Germany’s GDP will fall by 0.6 percentage points over 2023, a sharp revision to previous predictions. One of the most-prominent economic organisations on the continent, the IWH has called its new forecast a “strong downward revision” of 0.9 percentage points. It cited a slower recovery in…
Finnish firm Valmet has signed a €175m loan agreement with the EIB to support its efforts to finance technologies that replace fossil fuels with renewables. According to the company, the financing aims to enhance the resource and energy efficiency as well as the performance of Valmet’s technology, promote the use of recyclable raw materials and…
The economies of Europe have proved a drag on worldwide economic growth, according to new work from the OECD. The organisation’s Interim Report September 2023: Confronting Inflation and Low Growth found global GDP advanced at an annualised pace of 3.2% in the first half of the year. While growth was strong in the US and…
EU president Ursula von der Leyen has suggested the trading bloc’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) have been set back by the current economic and geopolitical climate. The remarks came during her speech at the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, which was held over two days in New York. Von der Leyen said that a “cascade…
Investment across the European real estate market totalled €248bn in 2022 – a fall of 14% on the previous year, according to law firm CMS. The first half of last year saw markets rebound after the Covid pandemic, according to the European Real Estate Deal Point Study – however, the sharp increase in financing costs…
A ‘year of reckoning’ has arrived for the European fintech scene, according to growth investor Finch Capital. The firm’s State of European Fintech 2023 report found funding for the sector dropped by 70% year on year, to levels last seen before 2020. At the same time, the report added, while mergers and acquisitions had remained…
