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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Deloitte wants to cut staff travel spending and expenses in the UK by more than 50 percent, as it seeks to maintain partner revenue during a slowdown in the professional services sector.

An email sent to partners and directors of the Big Four consultancy seen by the Financial Times said the business had introduced “firmwide cost management measures” due to “challenging market conditions” in the UK.

The email, sent in October, said the company is targeting a reduction of more than 50 percent in travel spending and expenses by the end of the current fiscal year in May. The cuts were described as “limited” and “temporary”.

The cost-cutting is a sign of continued struggles in the UK’s consulting sector, which has hit a period of weaker demand after a surge during the pandemic when companies sought help implementing new technology. A prolonged slowdown in mergers and acquisitions activity has also hit consulting work.

The email, sent by Sarah Humphreys, chief operating officer of the tax and legal division, said the company is considering additional cost-cutting measures, including a review of “recruitment agency costs, license fees , bad debts and global recharges”.

The tax and legal division decided to reduce travel and entertainment expenses “because these are the least disruptive areas for changes”, he added in an email to senior members of his department.

Deloitte has made more than 1,000 redundancies in the UK, where it employs around 25,000 people, by September 2023. The company is also pushing out workers it deems unfit, including around 250 advisory staff today autumn, the Financial Times previously reported.

Richard Houston, the senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte in the UK, warned this year that the firm had to “be very careful about our cost base and make some tough choices this year”.

Despite a market slowdown, Deloitte’s 749 UK equity partners were paid an average of more than £1mn for the 12 months to May 2024.

It was the only Big Four company to exceed the threshold in the most recent financial year. It achieved success despite revenues for its consulting division, its largest service line, declining 1 percent in the 12 months to May 2024, and sales in its financial advisory practice falling to 2 percent.

UK financial services consulting faces bleak forecasts. Source Global, a research group, said in October that while the market growth for financial services consulting will almost double to around 5 percent worldwide by 2024, the UK market will shrink by 2 percent.

Deloitte reorganized its UK operations this year to align with a global overhaul aimed at cutting costs and reducing organizational complexity. The main business units were reduced to four — audit and assurance; strategy, risk and transactions; technology and innovation; and tax and legal – from the five the company previously had.

Deloitte said: “Like many organisations, we look closely at our costs to ensure we meet the needs of clients while continuing to make investments in our company and our people..”

World – BNB Will Close 2024 Strong? ATH Push Heats Up As It Faces New Rivals

BNB and Uniswap returned surprising gains in December—but both cooled off in a big way toward the end of December. However, their respective runs in December were nothing short of a success after a new BNB ATH was made at $793 and Uniswap price action resulted in a strong 32 % profit last month.

However, the smart money is on the next big crypto—and they’re buying the biggest to best presale left on the board this year with the launch of the cross-chain DeFi protocol Lunex Network. Here’s why.

The cross-chain DeFi protocol Lunex offers big gains in 2025

The future of crypto is multi-chain. And a new presale investment opportunity offers better upside than BNB and Uniswap—even with the new BNB ATH and strong Uniswap price action. Low caps, after all, offer greater potential to increase in value than large caps—and that’s exactly what the new cross-chain DeFi protocol Lunex Network brings to the table with its presale.

Lunex allows users to seamlessly bridge, trade, and exchange over 50,000 trading pairs across 40 blockchains, simplifying the user experience across the board using a hybrid model. Through its Lunex Wallet, users can make complex trades while maintaining full control of their digital assets without having to connect to third-party apps that expose their digital assets to fraud.

Lunex users can use its self-custodial wallet for the most economical cross-chain swaps through its liquidity aggregator partners, while its native token $LNEX can be directly staked through the self-custodial wallet for passive income. Due to its ability to onboard new users to the DeFi fold, $LNEX could be used for a major bomb. That makes its presale launch one of the best investment opportunities as the year draws to a close.

New BNB ATH and strong Uniswap price action indicate strong finish

Not long ago, BNB holders rejoiced after the new BNB ATH of $793 was hit at the beginning of December. But the BNB ATH train hasn’t stopped yet. Although prices have returned to the ground in the $680 range, the Binance-adjacent L1 protocol is still up 4% on the month. It was all a matter of time before traders cashed in BNB ATH. On-chain volume suggests another strong finish for BNB to close the year.

Nothing goes up in a straight line forever, but a retracement of BNB ATH is definitely well within the cards in 2025.

The price of Uniswap follows the same trajectory. Uniswap pumped significantly throughout November and December, with Uniswap prices following Ethereum’s rise to $4000. As $3300 was withdrawn, so was the Uniswap. Uniswap fell 32.5% in the third week of December, trading in the $11 range. If Ethereum pumps and retests its ATH in 2025, holders can expect Uniswap to pump with it.

CONCLUSION

BNB and Uniswap are pumping in 2024, and traders are already making money. While a strong finish could still be in the cards, the risk reward ratio isn’t worth it. Smart money favors new crypto projects that haven’t changed yet – making Lunex a better investment prospect for investors looking for real profits in 2025.

You can find more information about Lunex Network (LNEX) here:

Website:

Social: https://linktr.ee/lunexnetwork