In the blogs: How far on a full charge?

What’s the one actionable takeaway for investors? There are really three. Diversify globally, question the old wisdom of investing purely in large government PSUs, local real estate developers, metals and mining, or telecom, simply because you happen to live in India. This is a form of home-country bias that no longer makes sense. In India,…

For the last time before Commonwealth Financial Network financial advisors move to LPL Financial, they gave the firm the top grade in satisfaction among independent brokerages. But the below rankings from market research and consulting firm JD Power’s closelywatched annual U.S Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study displayed some novel differences with those of prior years, in…

Payments used to be a distinct step in a transaction. Increasingly, they’re just another feature of the software people already use. As payment capabilities have become embedded in everything from point-of-sale systems to ERP platforms and digital wallets, they’ve faded into the background while enabling entirely new business models—from self-service checkout and subscriptions to, potentially,…

Mortgage underwriting runs on documents. Payslips, bank statements and tax returns are the evidence that lenders verify before approving a loan. Generative artificial intelligence can now produce all three in formats that pass standard checks. Australia’s mortgage market may be facing up to $4 billion Australian dollars (about $2.8 billion) in suspected fraud, with organized…

New prime minister Andy Burnham has distanced himself from rumours that he was actively looking at proposals to replace council tax and stamp duty with alternatives that reflect a property’s current value. It comes after The i Paper reported he was looking at ways to replace the current property taxation system with either a proportional…