All of this, plus a few more choice news nuggets, will now be condensed into your Friday afternoon catch-up:
1. Cabinet May-hem
The post-Brexit political circus ramped up another gear in recent days, as Theresa May won the battle for control of the Conservative Party, and therefore the country.
She set about appointing her cabinet, axing the likes of leadership rivals Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb, while keeping Jeremy Hunt in a job and promoting Boris Johnson to foreign secretary.
Mr Crabb was replaced as secretary of state for work and pensions by former coalition immigration minister and justice secretary Damian Green, while George Osborne saw Philip Hammond take over his cherished chancellor role.
Mr Hammond ruled out any emergency Budget and stated while austerity was the right answer to the 2008 financial crash, the economy was entering “a new phase” and it was right to review the pace at which the government balanced the books.
This morning, law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner called on the new chancellor not to alter the tax benefits system, should the UK head for technical recession later this year.
2. The rate rise that wasn’t
After days of predictions from analysts and pre-emptive tracker rate changes by lenders, the big day came and at 12 noon Bank of England’s best and brightest....
Did nothing. Again. For the 88th month in a row.
This was of course hailed by brokers as great news for borrowers, while those concentrating on savers bemoaned the continuation of their hardship.
Perhaps more importantly, the central bank’s lack of action - despite explicit statements that monetary policy loosening may well be on the card’s in August - led many economist types to speculate we could be stuck at 0.5 per cent for some time to come.
Our editor was among those predicting uncertainty as the new normal and calling Mark Carney the “governor of forward misguidance”.
3. Property fund ripples
As Aberdeen Asset Management ended a week-long suspension of its UK Property funds, this week saw other implications of the previous fortnight’s wave of similar temporary closures ripple out into the wider market.
FTAdviser sister paper Investment Adviser pointed out intermediaries and model portfolio providers face some “big problems” in the wake of the six retail funds suspending dealing to stem a run on assets, leaving £18bn shut off to redemptions.
Multi-asset funds and model portfolio services holding these funds will face mark downs as a result, but perhaps more problematic are the logistical problems now facing providers, rather than the risk their portfolios will also be gated.
Meanwhile, self-invested personal pension provider AJ Bell confirmed it has reclassified suspended property funds as a non-standard asset under the Financial Conduct Authority’s capital adequacy rules.
4. Robo warnings
Last year’s biggest buzzword was back this week, spurred on by a typically scathing report from SCM Direct, which argued ‘robo-advice’ was the latest thing to be branded ‘the next mis-selling scandal’.
It suggested such firms are wired to lose money, with most likely to go bust before acquiring the sizeable assets under management required to ensure their sustainability.
This came as one of the most prominent proponents of the automated trend stated the new technologies will not plug the gap left by the shortage of human advisers.
Pete Connell, managing director of the LV-backed Wealth Wizards, commented: “Our technology will not put advisers out of business - they just need to focus on what their value is - probably not administration and back offices processes.”
The Fintech bandwagon is one many seem to be jumping on at the moment though, with consultancy firm Altus suggesting more than 70 companies are developing automated advice propositions, ranging from small start-ups to large banks.
5. Fos round-up
We finish with the most popular story on the site this week, you guessed it; a Financial Ombudsman Service decision.
This one came with the adviser ire double-whammy or also involving Harlequin.
An ombudsman criticised a financial advice firm which helped a client invest his entire pension into the failed property venture.
The client - referred to as Mr G - complained about the advice he had been given by Allan McRoberts, trading as AM Wealth Management Services, which led to his £48,000 pension being valued at £1.
