David Cameron promete que reforma burocrática histórica vai economizar £850mi (R$3,3bi) para pequenas empresas

O primeiro-ministro do Reino Unido, David Cameron, anunciou hoje uma reforma burocrática que promote beneficiar as pequenas e médias empresas britânicas.

O plano é extinguir ou modificar cerca de três mil regras para o funcionamento de negócios no país.

De acordo com David Cameron, a medida deve reduzir os gastos das pequenas empresas em até £850 milhões (R$3,3bi) por ano.

O anúncio foi feito durante a conferência anual da Federação das Pequenas Empresas (FSB) em Londres, quando o primeiro ministro disse que o apoio às pequenas empresas é crucial para o plano de recuperação da economia do país.

David Cameron lembrou que 60% dos empregos no setor privado da Grã Bretanha é gerado por negócios de pequeno e médio portes.

O primeiro ministro explicou que a estratégia é acabar com leis desnecessárias, como as que determinam o formato de sinais de “proibido fumar” ou exigem licensa de manuseio de veneno para o comércio de produtos de limpeza para fornos, por exemplo.

A reforma vai excluir pelo menos um milhão de trabalhadores autônomos da Regulamentação de Segurança e Saúde no Trabalho e isentar de inspeções mais de 100.000 negócios de baixo risco.

A regulamentação do meio ambiente é um outro alvo desta reforma burocrática, que deve revisar e reduzir pelo menos 80.000 páginas de legislação ambiental resultando numa economia de até £100.000 (R$396.000) por ano para pequenas e médias empresas do Reino Unido.

São 640 páginas do guia de como movimentar o gado, 286 páginas do guia de demarcação de propriedades rurais e 380 páginas do guia de administração de lixo e detritos por exemplo.

David Cameron falou que as mudanças devem fazer do seu governo o primeiro da história moderna mundial a terminar o mandato com menos legislação do que quando começou.

London Grammar falls from Coldplay's tree

Raphael Michilis Fonseca

Apparently we entered the COLDPLAY harvesting period. fter the opening of the season with Reload, by Sebastian Ingrosso, Tommy Trash and John Martin, now it is time to collect another fruit from Coldplay's tree of influence: London Grammar's Strong. 

Is it only me who can hear Coldplay's Trouble all over Hannah Reid's vocal in this tune? I'm not trying to say it is a cover version, neither plagiarism. Her vocals are strong and the lyrics are beautiful. I prefer to see it as a reverence to Chris Martin, his friends and the incredible job they have been doing all of theses years.

Also, I had so many people listening to Reload and asking me what's the name of this new Coldplay's song? Yeah! Agree. For me it is nothing less than a Cold Play's electronic child.

I'm not complaining. I like the three groups. In different levels of course, and think we should give the due credit to Cold Play as the precursor of this movement. Can I call it a movement? Trend maybe? I don't know. Lets just enjoy it all. 

Assaltante de 50 anos morre durante assalto na Inglaterra

Raphael Michilis Fonseca

Um homem armado, de aproximadamente 50 anos, morreu quando tentava assaltar uma loja de apostas em Plymouth, litoral sudoeste da Inglaterra. O assaltante, que usava uma máscara de gás, foi desarmado e rendido por clientes da loja.

Quando os oficiais da polícia chegaram ao local encontraram o assaltante no chão, imobilizado por clientes e funcionários do estabelecimento e perceberam que ele não respirava”, disse o inspetor da polícia Ian Drummond-Smith. 

Ainda com a máscara de gás e já inconsciente no piso da loja, o homem chegou a ser preso pela polícia, que em seguida tentou rescussitá-lo. O serviço de ambulância também tentou reanimar o assaltante, mas ele foi declarado morto 20 minutos depois ainda no local.

O assaltante já foi identificado, mas seu nome não pode ser revelado até que seus familiares sejam oficialmente informados de sua morte.

Uma comissão independente da polícia investiga a causa da morte do assaltante.

Polícia britânica é suspeita de omitir crimes para reduzir estatísticas

Raphael Michilis Fonseca
A polícia britânica é suspeita de manipular o índice de redução de criminalidade na Inglaterra e no País de Gales. Uma pesquisa do Escritório Nacional de Estatiscas (ONS na single em inglês) aponta que cerca de 400.000 occorrências criminais deixaram de ser registradas nos períodos entre 2006-2007 e 2011-2012.

Nos últimos cinco anos a polícia registrou uma queda de 33% nos crimes occorridos na Inglaterra e em Gales. O ONS, no entanto, aponta que a queda foi de apenas 17%.


O estudo sugere que os números foram distorcidos para  que a polícia pudesse alcançar metas de redução da criminalidade e podem ser reflexo de cortes no orçamento.


A pesquisa do departamento de Estatística mostrou ainda que o índice de criminalidade teve uma queda contínua em praticamente todas as categorias nos 12 meses de setembro de 2011 a setembro de 2012, terminando o período com uma significante redução de 8%. A análise aponta no entanto que a polícia teria deixado de registrar 7% dos crimes praticados no mesmo intervalo.

O vice ministro da polícia David Hanson pediu para a Inspetoria de Polícia da rainha que investigasse as divergências entre os índices divulgados pelo departamento de estatística e os números registrados pela polícia.

Londres tem menor índice de desemprego dos últimos 18 meses, mas ameaça de demissões aumenta o risco de recessão

O nível de deseprego em Londres caiu de 7,8% to 7,7% no último trimestre de 2012, menor índice em 18 meses de acordo com o Departamento Nacional de Estatísticas (ONS).

Esta e a décima queda consecutiva do índice de desemprego, mas a notícia ainda não foi suficiente para espantar o fantasma da crise no país.

Economistas prevêem que o relatório do Produto Interno Bruto a ser publicado na sexta feira deve revelar uma retração no despenho do último trimestre de 2012. E as mas notícias não se referem apenas ao desepenho da economia da Inglaterra no ano passado, o pior pode estar por vir este ano.

O mais recente balde d'água fria foi jogado na economia Britanica ontem, quando a brigada contra incêndio de Londres anunciou a dispensa de 500 bombeiros e o fechamento de 100 estações de bombeiros numa tentativa de reduzir os custos em £45 milhões.

A onda de desemprego começou na semana passada quando a Honda Europa divulgou a redução de 800 funcionários da planta em Swindon (UK). A notícia foi amenizada logo em seguida quando a Land Rover anunciou intenção de contratar 800 novos empregados no país.
Mas o alívio foi abafado quando a gigante varejista de CD’s e DVD’s HMV confirmou sua falência e potencial demissão de 4.350. Em seguida, foi a vez da Blockbusters revelar dificuldades financeiras e a ameaça de fechar suas 580 lojas e desempregar 4.190 pessoas em todo o país.

Demissão em massa histórica também é esperada nas forcas armadas britânicas. O Ministério da Defesa inglesa anunciou o corte de cerca de 5.300 pessoas nos próximos 12 meses como parte de um programa de redução de custos. Este é o maior corte das forças armadas britânicas desde os anos 90.

Para combater a crise, o Banco da Inglaterra anunciou a manutenção do plano de estímulo de £ 375 bilhões e a sustentação da taxa de juros em 0,5%. O banco espera que as medidas estimulem o empréstimo e acelerem uma virada na economia, evitando um terceiro ciclo de recessão econômica.

Honda to make 800 redundant in the UK

Predicting increase in demenad, Honda hired 500 new
 employees 2012 as part of a £237 million investment program

Raphael Michilis
Honda Europe announced today it will cut 800 jobs from its plant in Swindon, UK. The company informed the redundancies may be completed by the spring 2013. 

Dave Hodgetts, Honda chief executive, said the cut follows a shrinking tendency in the whole European car industry that saw 1 million fewer cars sold last year by all makers mainly in Italy, Spain and Greece.
 
Last year the company hired 500 extra staff in a program that received a £267 million investment expecting an expansion that didn't happen.  

Despite the gloomy news, Honda European vice president Ken Keir said the company still believes in the potential of its operations in the UK.

"Quite categorically, we have a future at Swindon and producing cars in Europe for Europe, regardless of this decision," he said.

Honda said it will try to avoid compulsory redundancies, but announced that about 300 contracts ending in the spring may not be renewed. 

Giftango’s digital vouchers enter the European market

By Raphael Michilis
American digital gift card corporation Giftango has kicked off its European expansion plans with the opening of an office in Ireland and the partaking of its first ten partners in the UK.

This bigger step comes after about a year of “conversations with leading European merchants and the corporate programs that buy gift cards from them,” said Marcell King, vice-president of Merchant and International Development for Giftango.

Giftango will supply its partners’ customers with digital coupons issued nearly instantly,that will replace the currently printed gift cards and coupons that take days to be issues and received by post.

“We love that our program participants will now be able to receive their vouchers by email or SMS to their PC’s and smart phones,” says Kevin Lake, CEO of Countdown a loyalty program firm operated by MB Solutions (Holdings) Limited, and one of Giftango first partners in the UK.


“We’ve been a long- time proponent of delivering digital vouchers in our programs. It’s great for the consumer, it’s great for the merchant, and it’s great for us. We’re excited that our partnership with Giftango will enable us to expand our portfolio of digital vouchers,” said  Jonathan Grey, CEO of Ovation Incentives, another Giftango UK partner. 

The first lots of digital cards will be aimed to the corporate segment, which accounted for 52% of the total vouchers sales in the UK in 2011, according to Giftango.

“We learned a few things taking this thoughtful approach. The UK B2B gift card market is poised to yield a very high return for those corporations and merchants launching digital gift cards. The opportunities for digital gifting developing in both the mobile and social markets cannot be denied. Today we’re introducing a corporate eGift product that fits the UK market,” said King.

Giftango’s digital coupon B2B Channel Program will initially include Marriott, Hotel Voucher Shop, Theatre Tokens, Travelocity Gift Cards and SpaFinder.

Olympics and Queen’s Jubilee boost TestLink ATM parts sales by 15%

By Raphael Michilis
ATM supplier TestLink has reported that celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics have propelled a 15% increase in ATM parts sales in the past two months in the UK.

The UK and Czech Republic-based company said the Jubilee was responsible for “a significant rise in ATM transaction volumes” and that the Olympics will increase the UK’s demand for cash even further.

Financial service providers will make every effort “to ensure that high levels of ATM availability are maintained for both UK and international guests during this time,” said the ATM supplier.

“Such high levels of cash transactions will inevitably drive more maintenance calls and parts requirements,” said Greg Hughes, TestLink Managing Director.

TestLink says the volume of requests for ATM parts, such as configured currency cassettes, have went up 50% compared to the first semester of 2011; and it is preparing its stock to a continuous growth of demand.

“[TestLink] has worked closely with its field maintenance customers to ensure there will be sufficient inventory in place at the key Olympic sites to ensure levels of ATM availability are maintained,” said Hughes.

Barclaycard says PayTag experiences a phenomenal success

By Raphael Michilis
The volume of Barclaycard NFC sticker cards PayTag issued is increasing and the company is optimistic about the customer’s adoption of the technology.
“The take up of the PayTag has been phenomenally successful. I can’t tell the exact number yet, but we are pretty please with the results,” said Tom Gregory, Head of Digital payments at Barclaycard during a webinar on 31 May.


Tom Gregory said yet that the volume of point of sales (POS) compatible with NFC technology in the United Kingdom will soar 50% in 2012, predicts Barclaycard.


“There are 100,000 [NFC enabled] payment terminals in the UK today. And this number will reach 150,000 till the end of the year,” said the Barclaycard executive.


On the other had, a research by technology advisory company Gartner foresees that while global mobile payment in general should soar by 62% in 2012, the volume of NFC transactions will remain rather low until 2015, with substantial growth beginning only in 2016.


“There are so many predictions, some pretty different,” but for now NFC “level is beginning to rise and we are pretty happy”, said Gregory about Gartner findings.


He believes the spread of the NFC technology in the UK will be boosted by adoption of major players like Transport for London (TfL). He expects the public transport and other large initiatives will encourage usage, and improve awareness of the technology.


“We are getting balance of adoption and awareness. This is moving in the right direction. NFC is the future. We are investing in it because we believe, we have confidence in the technology,” said the Barclaycard executive.


Asked if Barclaycard plans to invest in mobile payment alternatives to NFC, he said the company “will continue monitoring” other technologies and change strategy if necessary. 


The finance and technology industries’ confidence in the Near Field Communication payments was corroborated earlier this week, when executives from MasterCard, Sony, Intel among others stood up for the technology during the Smart Card Alliance’s NFC Solutions Summit 2012.


The group said NFC will improve the shopper experience at the POS and in on a daily basis interactions.


NFC is “getting well along the way to mass market adoption,” said James Anderson, MasterCard’s senior vice president of Mobile and Emerging Payments.


Security 
Tom Gregory also contradicted concerns about security and said the technology is safe.


He didn’t reveal the number of fraudsters attacks to Barclaycard NFC products, but said the card registered a “very small volume of fraud transactions related to the PayTag.”


Frauds generally occur in small transactions and are linked to merchants’ inappropriate identification of the purchaser.


The Barclaycard executive reassured that the customers will be reimbursed of any undue purchase, and those merchants who decide not to do full verification of customer data might be held liable.


Availability
Despite the incipient release NFC fitted mobile devices, Barclaycard is still optimistic about the Near Field Communication payments.

According to Tom Gregory, the contactless sticker card, PayTag is a bridge to the technology till when NFC fitted devices are more commonly available.

“We don’t know when every android mobile or iPhone will have NFC. until that happens we’ll use the tags.”

Stagecoach trials Everything Everywhere NFC bus tickets in the UK

By Raphael Michilis
Stagecoach, one of the UK’s largest bus and rail operators, and mobile operator Everything Everywhere have teamed up to launch an NFC payments initiative in Cambridgeshire.

The project is still on trial, but it is said to be “the UK’s first government-standard commercial deployment of mobile contactless transport ticketing,” according to Everything Everywhere.

The new service is being tested by a small group of passengers that can receive, store and authenticate their bus ticket via NFC enabled mobile devices, which are built-in with an app designed for the pre-existing local bus network’s smart card readers.

The trial participants are using handsets featuring the Orange and Barclaycard Quick Tap, supplied by Everything Everywhere.

The trial takes place on Cambridgeshire bus routes, including the Cambridge Park & Ride and Guided Busway, and might be extended nationwide in 2013, depending on the success of the experiment.

"Once this trial is complete, we will carry out a review of the findings and assess the potential to expand the scheme further for our passengers,"said Martin Griffiths, Stagecoach finance director.

Stagecoach has a fleet of 7,700 buses that serves about 2.5 million passengers every day, and, according to Everything Everywhere, the joint initiative will help meeting government Government’s requirement to have most of public transport journeys using smart ticketing by December 2014.

Mobile users in Zimbabwe can borrow airtime from UK Lendme

Raphael Michilis 

UK-based and Africa-focused startup Lendme has kick-started its mobile airtime loan service in Zimbabwe. 

The platform permits subscribers to borrow credit worth up to $ 20 to top up their pay-as-you-go mobile account. Lendme promises not to charge users if the loan is paid back within seven days, and subscribers will not need to commit to a contract.  

“We don’t charge you a single cent! Just register, there are no strings attached,” the company says on its website.

The mobile credit can be paid back using a Lendme e-voucher, sold at over 500 merchants in Zimbabwe. The e-voucher denominations currently range from $ 0.25 to $ 5.00.

Lendme also plans to extend the offer of its e-voucher to lend money, so subscribers can borrow up to $ 100 to make payments on e-commerce.

  

Prior to the launch Lendme carried a user acceptance testing (beta testing) and Facebook campaign that distributed top-ups worth $10 to $ 50 to those who referred new subscribers.

“We recognise the inherent burdens airtime pre-payment inflicts on consumers hence, we have launched Lendme Airtime in Zimbabwe,” said Michael Charangwa, Lendme co-founder. 

Free gifts make number of Wrapp users expand 66% in two months

By Raphael MichilisWrapp, the Swedish social e-gifting start-up, has enjoyed a phenomenal April and May.

By the end of May, Wrapp had attracted nearly 250,000 users, an increase of 100,000 compared to the end of March.

In the past two months, Wrapp users gifted 700,000 digital vouchers to friends via Facebook; in the first quarter of 2012, total Wrapp gifts totalled 1m.

In the US, Wrapp has enjoyed early success. Since launching last November, the app has featured in the top 25 Apple iTunes chart in the social networking category.

Wrapp was founded in 2011 and has attracted investment of USD10.5m, including backing from Niklas Zennström, Skype co-founder.

At the time of joining the Wrapp board of directors last year, Zennström said in a statement:

“Wrapp is targeting a huge market by leveraging two mega-trends: social networks and smartphones.”

In addition to selling gift cards from major retailers, Wrapp permits the user to send digital vouchers to friends via Facebook for free.

Free gift cards are uploaded everyday to the application by partner retailers, helping to boost Wrapp popularity.

The social gifting craze is attractive to merchants as a marketing weapon, as it provides access to customer data that can be used in highly targeted advertising operations.

Wrapp’s marketing highlights that the merchant is also rewarded with a friend-to-friend automated advertising campaign, as “each gift card posted on a recipient’s Facebook timeline or wall is seen by about 80% of their friends.”

According to Wrapp, the associated brands’ average sales are worth around four to six times the value of the free vouchers they provide, helping Wrapp gain popularity among suppliers.

Wrapp has reportedly signed up around 70 major retailers in the US and Europe, with 20 signing up since the end of March.

Global expansion
Already up and running in the US, Norway Sweden and the UK, Wrapp has plans to expand into another a number of other countries including Brazil, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Turkey.

At the end of May, Wrapp kicked of its service in Finland and opened an office in Poland.

The buzz created by the launch of Wrapp has also attracted a competitor offering from a German-based start-up, DropGifts.

DropGrifts' service offers free vouchers and, like Wrapp, allows several users to contribute to a single gift.

The digital vouchers can be converted into meals at restaurants, gym and magazine subscriptions, clothing and many other products and can be redeemed online or in person at a partner retailer.

Wrapp’s coupon is purely digital and cannot be printed, so the receiver has to present a smart device at store to be redeemed. By contrast, the DropGift version can be printed or even posted to the recipient’s home address in a physical version.

Other gift cards apps include US-based FreebeeCards. It went live on 21 May and enables Iowa-based companies to offer free gifts, rewards and discounts in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed via a smartphone or printed.

The value of the first FreebeeCards ranged from USD 6 to USD 1000, exchangeable at Jasper Winery and Farrell’s eXtreme Body Shaping gym club.

Europe accounts for 47% of world payments in renminbi

By Raphael Michilis

24 April 2012 

Europe has overtaken Asia Pacific in the use of the Chinese renminbi for global payments in the first quarter of 2012, according to the report RMB Tracker by Swift, the payments and messaging platform.

Aside from China and Hong Kong, Europe is the biggest contributor to RMB offshore transactions, accounting for 47% of the payments in renminbi worldwide. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific’s share in RMB payments declined from 59% to 41%

RMB represented 6.7% of all European payments with China and Hong Kong in Q1 2012, an adoption rate slightly lower than the 7.2% observed in transactions with Asia Pacific countries.

However, European contribution to RMB payments is still more significant than its counterpart’s, thanks to its bigger absolute payments value.  The contribution in absolute value to RMB payments from several European countries is also bigger than that of many Asia-Pacific countries.

UK-based financial institutions are leading the City of London to be the next major offshore RMB centre. It did 30% of RMB payments and 46% of RMB FX in Q4 2011, staying on par with Singapore in RMB payments and first in RMB FX for the same period.

Africa and the Middle East also showed strong adoption of the RMB, but the overall value is still really small, the Swift report shows.

Adoption in the US and Canada was relatively good for that period, but nearly zero in Latin America.

Renminbi in numbers:

• 8.6% was the average growth of global payments from February to March

• 13.2% was the RMB growth for the same period, with its share climbing from 0.33% to 0.35%

• 16th was the position occupied by the RMB in the currency global ranking, after leaving the position 17th in February

About 95% of the UK population have never used a contactless card

By Raphael Michilis
10 May 2012
Only 5% of British consumers have used a contactless card, although 14% of the population own a card fitted with the contactless technology, revealed a recent study by international market researcher Mintel.

While around 8% of interviewees said they would immediately use contactless payments if they could, the research says consumers are not happy in being issued a contactless card without their request.

Mintel found out that 62% of the contactless card holders in the UK think it is a “more convenient” method of payment, while 28% were indifferent and 9% disagreed.

Mintel surveyed 2,000 people in the UK, and estimated that 9m British consumers are aware of the contactless capability on their card, while 3.8m “aren’t sure” they have one, said a company’s spokesperson.

“Consumers are still wary of contactless card payments, and compulsory upgrades risk further undermining consumers' goodwill towards the banks. There is anecdotal evidence of disgruntled customers closing accounts rather than have to carry a contactless card. If they only realise that they have been issued with this card months after the event, the reaction will be even less favourable,” said Toby Clark, head of UK Financial Services at Mintel.

Security is a big concern among the respondents, with 64% having said they worry about the use of a mobile instead of a payment card, and 58% being apprehensive about contactless cards.

“For those who have been issued with a card, though, it’s not security that’s preventing people from using contactless cards. Instead, it’s the limited acceptance and a lack of a compelling reason to switch from chip and PIN,” added Clarck.

The research in numbers:


43% of those using contactless cards had used the feature just a few before the Mintel.

62% of smartphone users and 71% of tablet owners would consider using contactless payment technology.

72% of consumers think think contactless cards should only be issued on request.