A Merseyside marvel

Even with lockdown rules eased, people are still reluctant to stretch outside their comfort zones into the new flexible world of rules! With exercise restrictions lifted, people still seem to be set in their old ways, refusing to go for more than 1 form of exercise a day… but why? Adrian Bell takes a look into the psychology and statistics of it.

Professor Simone Varotto analysed the financial reports of UK-listed companies from 1996-2018 and found a surprising pattern in how markets respond to different types of climate disclosures after natural disasters strike.

In certain sectors - notably banking, energy and telecoms - customers are exhorted almost continuously to consider ‘switching’ supplier. Organisational structures have been developed to facilitate switching and the strategy of switching tends to be strongly supported by the regulator in those industries. For example, over 40 UK banks and building societies now participate in the ‘Current Account Switch Service’ run by the payment service, Bacs. In the energy sector, there is an ‘EnergySwitch guarantee’ and the regulator (Ofgem) provides advice on how to switch to a new supplier, as does Ofcom for the telecoms sector.