December 6th is celebrated in many countries as St Nicholas' Day. In the Netherlands, children traditionally leave their shoes out for St Nicholas' annual visit, with the well-behaved children receiving presents in return for food left for St Nicholas' horses. Naughty children however, wake up to find a piece of coal in their shoe.
In the UK, we had the pleasure of celebrating December 6th with the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report. He presented two developments that will have significant impact for the UK financial services industry: ISAs and ASPs. So how badly behaved have we been? Well, we’ve been good enough to be rewarded with the confirmation that the ISA regime is here to stay, although not quite good enough to see a definite rise in the annual ISA allowance, which has been £7,000 since 1999. However, the Treasury statement that it is guaranteeing an annual limit of “at least £7,000” gives us some hope yet. He a...
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