Financial

RBS’s bigger-than-expected payout to shareholders last month helped the dividend haul for UK investors rise to an all-time of £19.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, figures out today revealed.

Colin Bennett, investment director at private equity house LDC in Scotland, says Scottish firms can expand beyond their backyard with this kind of approach.

Women working in Scotland’s Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) sector overwhelmingly prefer to work for smaller companies where they feel able to make a difference, new research suggests.

Standard Life Aberdeen is among a host of organisations supporting the Scottish launch of a nationwide initiative focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the asset management, professional services and financial services industries.

While the recent focus has been on the established stock markets across the world, the lesser known cryptocurrency markets have bubbled away quietly. That is until now.

High-profile industrialist ­Sanjeev Gupta, who has a string of investments in Scotland, has completed the acquisition of a bank as part of a bid to help UK businesses trade internationally, particularly with emerging and Commonwealth markets.

Economic data from countries like the US, China and Italy are no cause for panic, explains David Coombs, multi-asset portfolio funds manager at Rathbone.

Rugby was the only profession he’d known, but Ally Hogg found sporting skills were a perfect fit as a Barclays wealth manager.

Scotland’s jobs market remained subdued last month, a new report by Royal Bank of Scotland today indicates.

Mark Carney has dismissed the notion of a new currency being introduced in Scotland in the near future.

Scotland’s digital credentials have been given a boost after a European organisation with a €100 million annual budget opened its first UK satellite office, in Edinburgh.

Investment manager Baillie Gifford is launching a modern apprenticeship programme to allow 16 to 24-year-olds to learn on the job.

Nucleus Financial Group has hailed a strong full-year performance in “volatile” market conditions in its first period of trading on London’s junior market.

The devastating effects on a local high street following a raft of bank closures in a Scottish town have been detailed in a report for MPs.

Maven Capital Partners, the Glasgow-headquartered private equity firm, has led the management buy-out (MBO) of a Cumbernauld-based window manufacturer.

Scotland’s fintech sector is thriving with companies that are up there with the best in the world. Indigenous businesses, including Nucleus Financial, floated on the AIM last summer, and RBS-acquired FreeAgent ­demonstrate the healthy fintech scene. Meanwhile, international companies such as Swiss firm ­Avaloq and New Zealand’s FNZ have set up bases in Scotland, recognising the strength of the sector here.

Scotland has lost a third of its bank branches in just eight years. It’s a statistic to stop you in your tracks.