Tue. Apr 13th, 2021

Day: February 13, 2021

SME owners have taken CBILS loans with personal guarantees upto £766k to survive Covid

A Freedom of Information request to the British Business Bank has revealed the high personal risk the owners and directors of smaller businesses have taken to secure funds through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The request by Purbeck Insurance Services, provider of the UK’s only Personal Guarantee Insurance to SME business owners and directors found that as at 31 December 2020, CBILS loans to the value of £1.22bn were advanced with a Personal Guarantee in place as security for the lender and the average loan backed by a personal guarantee was £766,000.

A Personal Guarantee lifts the veil of incorporation and puts the borrower’s home and personal assets on the line as security if the business fails and the loan is called in. Under CBILS, for loans of more than £250,000 lenders are permitted to ask for additional security from the borrower in the form of a

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By wyna 2 months ago

UK firms complain as YouTube puts their ads on antivax videos

YouTube is making money from placing advertisements on anti-vaccination and conspiracy theory videos.

Despite the streaming giant pledging more than a year ago to stop adverts appearing next to videos pushing misinformation about vaccines, Business Matters found dozens of advertisements placed alongside conspiracy videos.

Adverts for the writing software Grammarly and the Big Yellow Box storage company appeared alongside videos claiming that doctors and nurses were guilty of genocide and that vaccines could kill. Big Yellow, the storage company, said that it was suspending advertising on YouTube as a result.

The meal service HelloFresh was promoted beside videos claiming that no vaccine had ever worked. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are safe and effective.

Tim Loughton, the Conservative MP for Worthing and Shoreham and a member of the home affairs select committee, said that people were seeing the “misinformed ramblings of conspiracy theorists” ahead of reputable health advice.

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By wyna 2 months ago

O’Neil Lecture in Business Journalism features The 19th founders

After breaking ground in nonprofit journalism as top leaders at The Texas Tribune, Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora launched their own national news organization last year, The 19th, which strives to empower women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community “with the information, community and tools they need to be equal participants in our democracy.”

The pair will deliver the 2021 William J. O’Neil Lecture in Business Journalism, “The 19th: Informing Women, Transforming News,” in a Zoom webinar on Tuesday, February 16 at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. To register for the webinar, please visit https://bit.ly/oneilzoom. For further information call 214-768-1915 or email [email protected]

The O’Neil Lecture Series is presented by the Division of Journalism at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

As veteran journalists, Ramshaw and Zamora saw an unmet need for a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization devoted to covering gender, politics and policy. They note that women

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By wyna 2 months ago