POUND LIVE: sterling hits €1.19 as Merkel halts payments on Airbus defence contract
THE British pound has hit €1.19 today as London's financial marketplace begins to look attractive to companies keen to avoid the EU's Capital Markets Union clampdown.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police perform at Windsor Horse Show
One of Canada's biggest pension fund managers is to open an office in London today amid more positive investment news for the British finance sector ahead of Brexit.
In a sign of Commonwealth positivity the Public Sector Pension Investement Board (PSP) is to open in London.
The PSP fund manages public sector pensions and currently has £70.7 billion of assets under management which is also made up of civil servant schemes.
Chief Executive PSP Andrew Bourbonnais told City AM: "There is a strong conviction within the senior management team and the board that London is and will remain the financial centre of Europe."
Mr Bourbonnais added that he believed the talent pool in London was effectively one of the strongest in the world and that he intended to remain in the United Kingdom irrespective of Brexit.
He added: "We're all aware of the possible implications of Brexit. But in our mind with the talent that is here and the fact that London has been the financial centre of Europe for decades, we are committed to it and we think it is the best place for us."
£1 = €1.19 / $1.29
8.21am Worrying times for employees of two of Scotland's biggest companies after they announced they planned to shed jobs.
Aberdeen Asset Management who are merging with Standard Life will cut 800 jobs.
This is despite a visit of the country's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to their New York Office last month.
The firm is run by Martin Gilbert who was branded a “sophisticated snake oil salesman” by MPs after the split capital investment trusts scandal almost wiped out his company in 2002.
Mr Gilbert, a close ally of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, recently waded into the Independence debate for a second time appearing to support the beleaguered SNP leader.
8.52am President Donald Trump has fired the FBI director James Comey as the country gets to grips with the fall-out from one of the most unpatriotic and divisive elections in its history.
The US President signed an order removing Comey from office amid a scandal involving Russian hacks and the Hillary Clinton email controversy.
President Trump said in a letter that he was being “terminated and removed” because he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau”.
Senator pays tribute to Sally Yates for 'taking a stand'
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein advised he was to be removed from one of America's top security positions over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
The high profile firing comes two days after former attorney general Sally Yates testified that she warned the Trump Administration that former national security adviser Michael Flynn may have been "compromised" by Russia.
Yates told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee: “We believed that General Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians.
"To state the obvious, you don't want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians."
9.38am BST Paresh Davdra, CEO and Co-Founder of RationalFX says the pound is being boosted by the Bank of England's rates decision.
He said: "The pound is rising against the US dollar as President Trump fires the FBI Director. The pound is moving towards the $1.30 psychological barrier against the dollar after the US currency weakens in response to the shock dismissal of the FBI Director James Comey, putting Sterling in a strong position ahead of the BoE rate decision on Thursday.
"This comes as the news that a Canadian fund management company joins the growing number of companies opening an office in the UK, shows confidence in the UK's post Brexit economy.
"Analysts will not be expecting any significant shift in policy if any from the BoE due to the upcoming election.
"Whilst interest rates may remain on hold for the foreseeable future, investors will be looking towards the performance of sterling in the lead up to the general election and afterwards. "With the rise in the pound in reaction to the announcement of the election seen by economists as having the potential to partially limit rising inflation, investors will be looking to the currency's key drivers in the coming months to see if the pound can rise against its peers enough to impact on inflation and give the BoE some hope of meeting its inflation targets."
10.52 BST London Mayor Sadiq Khan has scaled back support for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker as the pair are set for collision course over City jobs, it can be exclusively revealed.
The Labour member who was voted in last year says seems to have been forced to back Theresa May's Brexit strategy over the thorny issue.
London's financial services sector has been under extreme threat from the European Union's mandarins with unelected president Mr Juncker demanding new powers which will effectively stifle competition.
Tens of thousands of job losses could hit the City of London after Mr Juncker announced the first details of his Capital Markets Union (CMU) last week.
Draghi: Countries that have fiscal space should use it
12.25 BST ECB chief Mario Draghi has done the unthinkable and declared that unemployment is more than double what official eurozone stats claim.
The astonishing announcement puts the spotlight on the stagnating European Union and says the real figures are around 18 percent rather than the 9.5 percent unemployment rate for the bloc.
The news is set to send shockwaves through the establishment and put increasing pressure on member states to come clean over the real state of the economy. We will be filing a full report on this news shortly.
14.19 BST The German chancellor has halted payments with the defence manufacturer Airbus following a deal which was agreed in 2003.
The A400M, Europe's largest defence project, was ordered to give Europe an independent military transport capability under a deal struck by the Blair administration.
Seven NATO countries involved in the 20 billion euro (£16.9 billion) project are now on notice that the contract could collapse.
This is a developing story more to follow...
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