Articles

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) are opt-out registers that cover consumers and businesses. Anyone who doesn’t want to be targeted over the phone can leave their details on these registers to avoid receiving cold calls.

When you think of credit control, you probably think of a dusty old office at the back of the building sending out invoices and reminders with big red letters. This does happen, but effective credit control procedures are a critical business process that can make the difference between survival and insolvency.

Typically, large businesses or private equity firms use commercial due diligence to make a judgement on whether an asset is worth investing in. The term can be used in other spheres like property, but the focus here is on company acquisition.

It’s been a few months since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was foisted onto businesses and, as expected, it has caused quite a stir. Businesses have been inundated with data requests from customers and many are struggling to keep up. It’s only a matter of time before the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) starts issuing fines for non-compliance.

The Bank of England’s interest rate increase from 0.5% to 0.75% demonstrates that the nine-member monetary policy committee feels the economy is robust enough to sustain the rise. The Bank is working towards their pre-planned 2% target and is confident that businesses can absorb the increases.

According to an analysis performed by the Altus Group, there are 190,000 businesses in the UK that have received a summons to appear before magistrates over unpaid business rates. New rates came into effect on 1 April 2017 and businesses are still reeling from the changes. One group of businesses feeling particularly hard done by are high street retailers.

The FCA launched their finalised guidance on the treatment of Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) for anti-money laundering purposes in July 2017; you can read it in full here, this article has consolidated the key points.

The new GDPR regulations have been coming for a long time but, predictably, businesses have faced a difficult few weeks as the deadline drew nearer. Many were ill-prepared and ill-informed regarding how to ensure they were compliant. GDPR is primarily concerned with privacy so businesses need to have policies and procedures in place that ensure the security of the data they hold.