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Third of Global Consumers Open to Google, Amazon Banking: Accenture Survey

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Third of Global Consumers Open to Google, Amazon Banking: Accenture Survey

Roughly one in three banking and insurance customers globally would consider switching their accounts to Google, Amazon or Facebook if the Silicon Valley giants offered financial services, according to a new survey on Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by consulting firm Accenture, found that among 32,715 people polled in 18 countries there was broad consumer demand for banks and insurance companies to use robo-advisory services, or software propelled by artificial intelligence or less human intervention.

In Brazil, 50 percent of respondents said they would be willing to switch their personal accounts. In Indonesia and Italy, 47 percent and 42 percent of respondents, respectively, said they would switch accounts.

But according to the survey, if the tech titans offered those services, 31 percent of global respondents would switch to Google, Amazon or Facebook for banking, and 29 percent would switch for insurance.

accenture survey Accenture

Already a trend in the wealth management industry, Wall Street banks and investment firms are increasingly building or buying so-called robo-advisers to provide automated investment advice through web-based platforms at a lower cost than traditional financial advisers.

“(Google, Amazon, Facebook) are setting the standards in terms of customer experience and personalisation,” said Piercarlo Gera, senior managing director at Accenture Financial Services. Consumers look at banks and see a gap, Gera said.

Google, Amazon and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

While none of these companies currently offer bank or insurance products, Google and Facebook allow users to send payments to their contacts online. Amazon has a limited service providing loans to small sellers that it selects.

It is unclear whether regulations in any of the countries in which the survey was conducted would allow these companies to have banking or insurance licenses.

The survey was conducted from May to June in 2016, and respondents were asked to answer questions online.

When it came to specific services, more than 7 in 10 respondents said they would use robo-advice to figure out what kind of bank account to open, and nearly 4 out of 5 said they would use it for investing.

But 68 percent of respondents said they did not want a robot handling customer complaints, and 61 percent said they would prefer a human over an automated system for advice about complex products like mortgages.

Accenture launched a partnership with Google in September for cloud, mobility and analytic strategies to clients in retail, healthcare, consumer products, energy and finance.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Education

Number of state school pupils receiving private tuition has risen by a third, report reveals

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

web-private-tutor-RF-corbis.jpg

About 43% of state school teachers have offered private tutoring outside their main work as demand continues to rise, a report has revealed.

The number of state-educated 11 to 16-year-olds in England and Wales who have been privately tutored rose by more than a third over the last decade, according to research by the Sutton Trust.

But the charity warned that the growth of the “shadow education” market, which it estimates to be worth up to £2 billion for pupils aged five to 18, is exacerbating inequalities in the education system by pricing lower income students out.

Currently across England and Wales, more than a quarter of state-educated 11 to 16-year-olds (700,000 pupils) have been privately tutored at some point, while 43% of state school teachers have offered private tuition.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “Private tuition is widespread and increasingly so. Nearly half of teachers have tutored and a quarter of teenagers have been tutored. But with costs of at least £25 per session, many cannot afford to benefit from this extra support, which exacerbates education inequalities.

“No-one wants to limit parents doing their best for their children, but we need to ensure that extra tuition is as widely available as possible. Otherwise, it will continue to widen the attainment gap.”

Maths and English were the most common subjects to be tutored in, followed by the sciences, Spanish and French, while specialist tuition for pupils hoping to pass the 11-plus test and gain a place at a grammar school was also popular.

Last year, 280,000 (10%) 11 to 16-year-old pupils in England and Wales received private tuition – a number the trust called “remarkable”.

But private school pupils were twice as likely to receive private lessons than those attending state schools, and pupils who received free school meals were almost 10% less likely to be privately tutored than those who did not.

The report – based on polling by Ipsos MORI and the National Foundation for Educational Research and data from private tuition agencies – claims to be the “most comprehensive analysis to date” of the UK’s private tuition market.

The trust is calling on the Government to introduce means-tested vouchers that will enable lower-income families to access additional educational support and provide quick remuneration to participating tutors and agencies.

It also is urging agencies to provide a certain proportion of their tuition to disadvantaged pupils for free.

Tutorfair, which has 38,000 tutors and gives free tutoring to one child for every student who pays, was praised as an example of good practice, and grammar schools should ensure young people are familiarised with the type of test they will encounter in entrance exams and encourage children from lower-income backgrounds to apply, the trust recommended.

[Source:- independent]

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Education

More than a third of female students ‘have mental health problems’

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Distressed woman

One in three female students in the UK has a mental health problem, a survey suggests.

This compared with about a fifth of male undergraduates, the YouGov survey of 1,061 students found.

Overall, some 27% of the students said they had a mental health problem. This rose to 45% among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Universities UK said institutions were working hard to develop good services that linked in with the NHS.

Of those students who said they had a mental health problem:

  • 77% had depression
  • 74% had anxiety

In May, official statistics showed student suicides had risen to their highest level since numbers were first recorded in 2007.

These figures – for 2014 – showed 130 suicides in England and Wales among full-time students aged 18 or above.

There has been concern about the level of mental health support services provided by universities.

But the survey showed the students were broadly aware of the mental health services offered by their universities.

Underlying illness

Some 18% had already made contact with university mental health services, and, of those who had, nearly nine out of 10 had seen a counsellor

Chief executive of Universities UK Nicola Dandridge said: “Universities take student mental health very seriously.

“For some students, an unfamiliar higher education environment can be stressful, particularly for those who already have an underlying illness.

“Some students are reluctant to disclose their difficulties, which can also present a challenge for universities seeking to support them.

“However, the development of policies and anti-stigma campaigns is now beginning to address both these issues.

“The challenge for universities is to build on the support services and external links that exist already, enabling referral to the NHS where necessary.

“It is important to remember that university wellbeing services, however excellent, cannot replace the specialised care that the NHS provides for students with mental illnesses.”

Universities UK also said it had issued guidance to all universities last year with advice on dealing with students with mental health issues.

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Graduate debt ‘a third of average mortgage’, says charity

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Young employees

New graduates in England face average debt levels of more than a third of the average mortgage, research suggests.

When they start paying back their maintenance and tuition loans, this year’s graduates will owe at least £41,000, The Money Charity says.

Average outstanding mortgage debt is £117,162, the researchers say.

The government says the student loans system is fair and sustainable and that higher education boosts employability and earnings.

Rising rents

Rising maintenance loans and the higher tuition fees of £9,000 a year for students who started their degrees in 2012 or later have led to a hike in debt, the charity says.

The first students on the higher fees graduated last summer and, under the current rules, those earning more than £21,000 began paying back their loans in April.

The sum owed by students has risen steadily for the past decade, tripling since 2003, the charity calculates.

“Much of this is driven by the introduction and gradual rise of tuition fees,” the researchers said.

“The other, often overlooked, driver of rising student debt is the runaway cost of accommodation, which requires ever larger maintenance loans just to keep up.”

A study by the charity last year warned that average yearly rents outside London had grown by £277 in a year between 2014 and 2015, with maintenance loans and grants failing to keep pace.

University maintenance grants for lower income student in England Wales are due to be scrapped from next month.

Meanwhile, a petition against government plans to freeze the repayment threshold for student loans at £21,000 instead of increasing it with average earnings as was originally promised now stands at more than 130,000 signatures, and the issue has been debated in Parliament.

“For nearly half the young people in the UK, becoming a student will be the first step into adult life, with all the financial responsibilities that brings. We worry that these early, formative experiences of debt will leave a lasting legacy,” said The Money Charity chief executive Michelle Highman.

“Normalising large quantities of debt right at the start of people’s financial independence risks setting them up to fail.

“The size of these sums may also affect later borrowing such as loans and mortgages.”

‘Fair system’

The government says higher education boosts employability and earnings and the student loans system is fair and sustainable “as the [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] OECD has recognised”.

Ministers say the current system removes financial barriers for anyone hoping to study, with outstanding debt written off after 30 years.

Scotland does not charge fees for first-time Scottish undergraduates studying in Scotland.

Fees in Wales can be up to £9,000, but the Welsh government pays £5,100 of this for Welsh students.

Northern Irish students studying in Northern Ireland pay £3,925 a year.

[Source:- BBC]

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Internet

Mark Zuckerberg Becomes World’s Third Richest Person as Facebook Stock Soars

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Mark Zuckerberg Becomes World's Third Richest Person as Facebook Stock Soars

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has overtaken Warren Buffett as the world’s third-richest person, further solidifying technology as the most robust creator of wealth.

Zuckerberg, who trails only Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, eclipsed Buffett Friday as Facebook shares climbed 2.4 percent, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

It’s the first time that the three wealthiest people on the ranking made their fortunes from technology. Zuckerberg, 34, is now worth $81.6 billion (approximately Rs. 5.61 lakh crores), about $373 million (roughly Rs. 2,565 crores) more than Buffett, 87, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Zuckerberg’s ascent has been driven by investors’ continued embrace of Facebook, the social-network giant that shook off the fallout from a data-privacy crisis that hammered its shares, sending them to an eight-month low of $152.22 (about Rs. 10,467.41) on March 27. The stock closed Friday at a record $203.23 (roughly Rs. 13,975.11).

Technology fortunes make up about a fifth of the more than $5 trillion (about Rs. 344 lakh crores) in wealth tracked by the Bloomberg index, more than any other sector. The ranking, which tracks the world’s 500 richest people, is updated after the close of each trading day in New York.

Buffett, once the world’s wealthiest person, is sliding in the ranking thanks to his charitable giving, which he kicked off in earnest in 2006. He’s donated about 290 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to charities, most of it to Gates’s foundation. Those shares are now worth more than $50 billion (about Rs. 3.44 lakh crores), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Zuckerberg has pledged to give away 99 percent of his Facebook stock in his lifetime.

 

 

[“source=gadgets.ndtv”]

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