Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Friday 8 August 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Devon man guilty over £1m Ponzi scam
An individual has been found guilty of fraud after running a £1m Ponzi scheme, following a prosecution by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Daniel Pugh, 35, of Devon, operated the fraudulent Imperial Investment Fund, taking money from 238 investors, many of whom were recruited via Facebook adverts.
He promised implausible returns of 1.4% a day, 7% a week or 350% a year.
Ben Kumar: Lessons from tennis you can apply to investing
If you like tennis, it’s been a great year, writes Ben Kumar, head of equity strategy at 7IM.
And even if you don’t, I promise you don’t have to know anything about tennis for this piece to make sense.
A couple of lazy Sunday afternoons spent watching Roland Garros and Wimbledon helped me spot a few little similarities to the world of investing: nothing lasts forever, however impressive.
Quote Of The Day
The BoE’s more cautious stance of late has been driven by stubbornly high core inflation, despite indications of downward pressure across several relevant measures
– Daron Kularatnam, group treasurer at lender Glenhawk, comments on the Bank of England’s latest interest rate cut
Stat Attack
A new survey by Confused.com has found that over half of UK adults have felt the need to take time off work to catch up on life admin tasks — from renewing passports to booking medical appointments.
The research highlights the everyday responsibilities people are most likely to put off or forget, with the top culprits being:
36%
of Brits delaying medical appointments.
32%
forgetting or postponing the cancellation of subscriptions.
25%
pushing back writing or updating a will. The issue is particularly acute among younger generations.
Over 83%
of 25–34-year-olds said they have needed time off to stay on top of personal admin, compared to just
16%
of those aged 65+ and 35% of those aged 55–64.
72%
of adults admit to procrastinating on life admin.
53%
said they have felt the need to take leave from work to manage these tasks.
Source: Confused.com
In Other News
Vitality has reported a record response to its Vitality Champions programme, with 750 new recruits bringing the total number of Champions to 2,139 across 1,200 businesses, supporting the wellbeing of more than 190,000 members.
The programme enables employees passionate about health to act as internal advocates for wellbeing, motivating colleagues and shaping workplace health strategies.
Champions gain access to a dedicated online hub, expert guidance and a suite of wellbeing resources, including toolkits, workshops and coaching support.
Vitality says the initiative is delivering real impact. Firms with an active Champion see 15% more engagement from new starters, and data shows that physically inactive employees lose 28% more productive time than those who exercise regularly.
HSBC Asset Management has named Karim Ghannam as global head of real assets and head of alternatives, Singapore.
With over 25 years’ experience, Ghannam will oversee the strategic development of HSBC AM’s real assets offering, which includes listed, direct and indirect investment strategies.
He joins from 8F Asset Management, an impact-focused private equity firm he co-founded, where he was most recently chief investment officer.
His previous roles include senior positions at Deutsche Bank and Argan Capital.
Joanna Munro, CEO of Alternatives at HSBC AM, said: “Karim brings valuable industry insight as we scale our real assets business and strengthen our offering in Singapore as a key wealth hub.”
Shock Bank split exposes precarious state of Britain’s economy (The Telegraph)
Oil heads for worst run since 2021 as traders discount US curbs (Bloomberg)
Donald Trump’s awful trade policy will outlast him (The Economist)
Did You See?
Younger clients represent the future of financial advice, but how effective are firms’ efforts to attract the clients of tomorrow?
This is one of the key questions we sought to answer in our 2025 Nucleus Voice of the Adviser Survey, a new annual gauge of adviser views on the main challenges facing the profession, writes Paul Bagley, distribution director at Nucleus.
The survey highlights the continued importance of referrals, with two-thirds of new business coming via recommendations from existing clients (37%) and other professional services such as accountants or solicitors (30%).
