Get your Leap Day pitches in now
2024 is a leap year. Get your financial pitches in now for the intercalary event of the year!
My wife and I have developed something of a post-pandemic tradition of running away in February for some sunshine.
This year we’re escaping to Kenya (then I’m off to Tanzania for…other things…). But February is just a little bit more exciting this year because…drum roll…it includes a 29th day!
We add an extra day every four years otherwise our (imperfect) annual calendar would in time start to desynchronise with the astronomical year.
Before 29 February became a thing (in 1750 in the UK, if you were wondering) we used to just have 28 February twice.
People born on the day are referred to as ‘leaplings’. In Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, poor Frederic is bound to be an apprentice until his 21st birthday – but being a leapling he is condemned to serve until he’s 88 years-old.
Armed with these excellent factoids, I look forward to hearing the leap year themed pitches, hooks, angles, story ideas and surveys!
In honour of the once-every-four-year event, here’s some of what is coming up in the financial calendar on our extra day of the year.
These include a smattering of economic announcements:
- FCA deadline for investment platforms and SIPP operators to cease ‘double dipping’ in relation to interest earned on customers’ cash balances
- HMRC number of property transactions
- Bank of England Decision Maker Panel data
- Bank of England: Money and Credit – Lending to Individuals, Lending to Businesses, Broad Money and Credit, Jan
- MSCI UK Annual Property Index
- Bank of England: Monetary & Financial Statistics, Jan
- Bank of England effective interest rates
- Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Business Barometer
And some nice industry awards and events:
- City A.M. Awards
- PRCA City and Financial Awards
- Investment Week Funds to Watch conference
- Resolution Foundation ‘Ending stagnation’ event
- NCTJ Awards for Excellence
A biography of Sir Keir Starmer by Tom Baldwin called ‘Keir Starmer: The Biography’, is also due to be published by William Collins, .
If you’d like to find out the rest of what is happening in February, please do check our regular Forward Look dates list.
Happy Leap year from everyone here at MRM and Mouthy Money. I hope the extra day in your calendar proves fruitful!