Category Archives: Financial sector

UK asks banks for feelgood stories about keeping out dirty money

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City firms tapped for case studies to try to convince global watchdog that London has cleaned up its act

The government is asking bankers and lawyers to provide feelgood stories about how they blocked dirty money from entering the UK, as ministers try to prove the UK’s money-laundering controls are working.

The Treasury’s call for evidence is meant to illustrate that the UK has upped its game when it comes to preventing financial crime, particularly since its last dismal assessment by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) global crime watchdog in 2018, which fuelled allegations that London had become a hub for “dirty money”.

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AA could face £5bn takeover move by German insurer Allianz, reports claim

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Breakdown recovery group’s private equity owners reportedly in talks with various suitors to sell company

The German-based financial services company ⁠Allianz is considering a £5bn takeover swoop for AA, ⁠the breakdown ⁠recovery ​group, Sky News has reported.

Allianz was ‌one of a small number of parties holding talks with advisers to AA about a deal, Sky News said, adding that ‌the private equity outfit EQT was another bidder.

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Ex-Barclays boss denies having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White

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Jes Staley made the comments to US lawmakers investigating his links to Jeffrey Epstein

The former Barclays boss Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned about an infamous email exchange about Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein.

The comments were detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month with US lawmakers as part of their investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

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UK’s state investments agency hit by data breach

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Security lapse leaves sensitive information and contact details of 51 government officials exposed for 40 hours

The public body in charge of the UK’s state investments has been pushed to improve its internal security after a data breach left “high-level management information” publicly accessible for nearly two days.

UK Government Investments (UKGI), the agency that manages the taxpayers’ interest in a swathe of companies including Channel 4 and the Post Office, said the security failure also left more than 50 government officials’ personal details exposed for nearly 40 hours.

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Bank of England plans to ease capital rules despite AI stability fears

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Central bank’s financial policy committee members voice concern on trimming big lenders’ financial buffers

The Bank of England is planning to loosen capital requirements for major UK lenders, even as policymakers expressed concern about the threat to financial stability from rapid AI developments and debt-fuelled stock investments.

The central bank said on Tuesday it was looking to remove and loosen some rules introduced after the 2008 financial crisis that determine the size of the financial cushion required to absorb losses and protect consumers and taxpayers when things go wrong.

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New free financial advice plan aims to help Britons build savings

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‘Targeted support’ means certain banks and financial institutions can offer free extra help with investments and pensions

Many Britons are daunted by the world of investing, but new City rules mean certain banks and financial institutions can offer free extra help with investments and pensions.

Last month marked the launch of “targeted support”, a new regulated service that permits companies to suggest investments and pension products to customers that might provide a better return.

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Nationwide could have first customer on board for nearly 25 years

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James Sherwin-Smith will be up for election after securing more than 250 nominations to run alongside existing directors

Nationwide building society could have a customer on its board for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century after one of its longtime members secured enough support for a spot on the lender’s annual ballot.

James Sherwin-Smith will be up for board elections at Nationwide’s annual general meeting (AGM) in July, having gathered more than the 250 peer nominations necessary to run alongside existing directors.

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Aegon offloads 200-year-old UK business to Standard Life for £2bn

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Deal will create pensions and savings group with 16m customers and £480bn of assets, while Aegon focuses on US

The Dutch financial services group Aegon has struck a £2bn deal to sell off its almost 200-year-old UK arm to Standard Life, as part of a US push in which the group will be rebranded as Transamerica.

Standard Life, previously known as Phoenix Group, said the deal to buy Aegon UK would create a pensions and savings group with 16 million customers and £480bn of assets under administration.

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Lloyds bank faces £66m court battle with car loan customers

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Law firm is preparing claim on behalf of 30,000 consumers who fear the FCA’s redress scheme will shortchange them

Lloyds Banking Group is facing a court battle with 30,000 aggrieved car loan customers who are to abandon the City regulator’s official redress scheme amid fears it will shortchange consumers and favour lenders.

The claims law firm Courmacs Legal is planning to file a £66m omnibus claim on behalf of borrowers who believe they were financially harmed by car loan contracts set up by Lloyds’ motor finance arm, Black Horse.

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European takeover battle hots up with UniCredit’s ‘unfriendly attack’ on Commerzbank

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Milan-based bank plans to up its near-30% stake in German lender to trigger formal talks despite strong opposition from Berlin

Two European banking powerhouses have become embroiled in a €35bn (£30bn) takeover battle after Italy’s UniCredit stepped up its long-running pursuit of German lender Commerzbank, despite strong opposition from the German government.

UniCredit first took a stake of 9% in Commerzbank in September 2024 and has since built up its holding to just under 30%. It said on Monday it was pushing to increase that holding further and push the rival lender into formal merger talks.

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UK recruiter emerges from insolvency for third time, avoiding millions owed in tax

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Hampshire business seems to have benefited from ‘phoenixism’, which costs the taxpayer about £800m a year

A UK recruitment business has been acquired out of administration for a third time in four years as part of a succession of deals that left some of the former management team in place and millions of pounds owed to the public purse.

The chain of insolvencies appears to contain more examples of phoenixism – a process when companies are liquidated and directors are able to rise from the ashes with a new entity, free of debts.

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Reeves to host bosses of UK and US financial firms as Trump visit begins

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Chancellor hosting Downing Street talks with Treasury secretary, which are aimed at securing more US investment

Rachel Reeves will host the bosses of top US and UK financial firms in Downing Street on Tuesday morning, as Donald Trump begins his official state visit.

The meeting, which will be jointly hosted by US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will be attended by senior figures from BlackRock, Barclays and Blackstone, who will have roundtable talks with officials hoping to highlight economic cooperation between the two countries.

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US drugmaker Merck scraps £1bn London research centre and cuts 125 science jobs

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New blow to UK’s key life science sector as industry body says country is losing ground on investment and research

The US drugmaker Merck has scrapped a £1bn London research centre and is laying off 125 scientists in the capital this year, in a big blow to the UK’s important life science sector.

Keir Starmer’s government has described life sciences as “one of the crown jewels of the UK economy” and the previous Conservative government had vowed to turn the country into a “global science and technology superpower” by 2030.

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Millions in line for payouts from £18bn car loan compensation scheme

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City regulator says motorists should start to get payments in 2026 with ‘most payouts likely to be under £950’

Millions of drivers could be handed a share of a multibillion-pound compensation package after the City regulator said it would open a redress scheme for consumers affected by the car finance scandal.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will consult on the redress scheme, which could cost banks between £9bn and £18bn when it begins paying consumers compensation next year.

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Bank of England governor blocks Rachel Reeves’s Revolut meeting

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Concerns about chancellor’s involvement in independent process over fintech’s banking licence

The governor of the Bank of England blocked a meeting that Rachel Reeves tried to secure with watchdogs and Revolut, amid concerns the chancellor was meddling in an independent process over the fintech’s UK banking licence.

Andrew Bailey intervened after learning of the plan to bring together representatives from Revolut, the Treasury and the Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, to discuss the fintech’s ambitions to become a fully authorised UK bank.

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Private equity fund offers car tycoon €1.1m to settle claim over investment cash

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Big Motoring World founder Peter Waddell says Freshstream made him forfeit sum as it saw him as a nuisance

A private equity company accused of ousting a multimillionaire used car salesman from his own business has offered to pay €1.1m (£950,000) to settle a separate case with him.

Peter Waddell filed his first high court claim against Freshstream last year, alleging that the investment firm used an independent investigation into contested sexist, racist and abusive comments “as a means of securing [his] exclusion” from his used car empire, Big Motoring World. Freshstream had acquired a one-third share in Big during 2022.

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UK watchdog investigates eight years of Deloitte audits of mining firm Glencore

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FRC examines whether accounting firm ‘gave sufficient consideration to risk of non-compliance with laws’

The accounting firm Deloitte is under investigation by the sector regulator over eight years of its audits into the FTSE 100 commodities and mining company Glencore and a UK subsidiary.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was looking into whether Deloitte’s audits of Glencore and its subsidiary Glencore Energy UK for the financial years ending 2013 to 2020 “gave sufficient consideration to the risk of non-compliance with laws and regulations”.

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Ministers to revive Blair-era Pensions Commission to tackle savings crisis

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Revived body will examine future of the retirement system as analysis shows pensioner income is set to fall

The government is resurrecting the Pensions Commission, amid fears that a retirement crisis could mean today’s workers will be poorer in retirement than the current crop of pensioners.

The move by ministers to revive the landmark commission, established by Tony Blair’s government in 2002, comes as analysis shows that the income of pensioners is set to fall in the coming decades.

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Reeves to say cuts to City red tape will bring trickle-down benefits to households

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Chancellor to announce raft of deregulation changes as City regulators move to pare back transparency rules

Rachel Reeves will claim that cutting red tape for City firms will have trickle-down benefits for households across Britain, as she tries to drum up support for a new financial services strategy.

A raft of regulatory reforms are due to be announced by the chancellor on Tuesday, in what the Treasury says will be the “biggest financial regulation reforms in a decade”. It will come before her Mansion House address to City bosses during a dinner at Guildhall in London on Tuesday evening.

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Credit Suisse was ‘warned’ about Greensill three years before firm collapsed

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Anonymous messages questioned judgment of senior managers in dealing with Greensill, says Swiss regulator

Bosses at Credit Suisse were warned against dealing with the Australian financier Lex Greensill’s eponymous company three years before the collapse of his Greensill Capital, which once employed the former UK prime minister David Cameron as an adviser.

The “character judgment” of senior Credit Suisse managers was challenged in anonymous messages they received as early as 2018, which raised concerns over the Swiss bank’s dealings with Greensill, according to a report by the Swiss regulator Finma, released under a London court order after a request by the Guardian and other media.

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