Category Archives: Financial sector

UK car finance: ‘millions of drivers could get payout’ as watchdog investigates

Posted on by

FCA to examine whether consumers have been charged inflated prices for loans on new and secondhand cars

Millions of drivers could be in line for a payout, it has been claimed, after the UK financial watchdog opened an investigation into whether consumers had been unfairly charged inflated prices for loans on new and secondhand cars.

The Financial Conduct Authority said on Thursday that it had decided to examine whether a compensation scheme was needed to deal with alleged large-scale mis-selling in the £50bn-a-year motor finance sector.

Continue reading...

UK students launch Barclays ‘career boycott’ over bank’s climate policies

Posted on by

Campaign at leading universities such as Oxbridge and UCL warns lender it will miss out on top talent if it finances fossil fuels

Hundreds of students from leading UK universities have launched a “career boycott” of Barclays over its climate policies, warning that the bank will miss out on top talent unless it stops financing fossil fuel companies.

More than 220 students from Barclays’ top recruitment universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London have sent a letter to the high street lender, saying they will not work for Barclays and raising the alarm over its funding for oil and gas firms including Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and BP.

Continue reading...

UK and Switzerland agree to deepen ties between City and Swiss banking system

Posted on by

Treasury says post-Brexit tie-up to be signed on Thursday will ease cross-border market access for financial services

The UK and Switzerland will agree to forge closer links on Thursday in a post-Brexit accord that aims to deepen ties between the City and the Swiss banking system.

In a move that brings Europe’s largest financial centres closer together, the mutual recognition agreement will be signed on Thursday by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, during a visit to Berne.

Continue reading...

L&G opens door for huge US-style bonuses for UK asset managers

Posted on by

Update to pay policy includes room for ‘necessary flexibility’ to attract best talent to London-listed firm

One of the largest UK pension and insurance firms has opened the door to backing US-style mega-bonuses for London listed companies despite fears that executive pay is fuelling inequality and encouraging “short-term risk taking”.

Legal & General Investment Management has updated its pay policy to say there is room for the “necessary flexibility” needed to attract the best talent. It acknowledges “an increased push” by UK companies towards “remunerations structures that are more closely aligned to US-style pay”.

Continue reading...

Scale of bullying and harassment of women in City ‘shocks and alarms’ MPs

Posted on by

Cross-party Treasury committee says its private hearings suggest there has been no improvement in 20 years

MPs on the cross-party Treasury committee have been “shocked and alarmed” to hear about the scale of bullying and sexual harassment against women in the City of London, which suggests there has been “no improvement whatsoever” over the past 20 years.

The Labour MP and committee member Angela Eagle said private hearings held as part of the committee’s sexism in the City inquiry had raised significant concerns about the conditions women were forced to endure in the UK’s financial services sector.

Continue reading...

Moody’s cuts China credit outlook to negative as economy slows

Posted on by

Rating agency says Beijing may need to bail out local governments as property sector collapses

China’s ability to repay its government borrowing has been downgraded by the credit rating agency Moody’s, which said the ripple effects from a crisis in the property sector would undermine efforts to revive its flagging economy.

Moody’s warned that Beijing would need to bail out local and regional governments and state-owned enterprises that were struggling with rising debts, hampering efforts to boost investment and growth.

Continue reading...

UK will not return to Cameron era’s close ties with China, Sunak says

Posted on by

At summit to drum up foreign investment PM says he does not intend to change policy towards Beijing

Rishi Sunak has said the UK will not return to the close relationship with China pursued under David Cameron, as the prime minister met business leaders in an effort to drum up foreign investment.

The government on Monday said £29.5bn of new investment had been earmarked for the UK, including projects by the ScottishPower owner, Iberdrola, and BioNTech, the German company that partnered with Pfizer on its Covid vaccine.

Continue reading...

Eurozone banks starting to show ‘stress’ as loan defaults rise, ECB warns

Posted on by

Rising interest rates have boosted profitability but are likely to limit demand and increase risk of bad debts, says central bank

The balance sheets of eurozone banks are showing “early signs of stress” after a rise in loan defaults and late payments by customers, the European Central Bank has warned.

Higher interest rates have boosted banks’ income and profits for the time being, the ECB said, but lenders are facing pressures from higher funding costs, worsening asset quality and lower lending volumes.

Continue reading...

Ex-minister Gavin Williamson warned as he takes job at payment card provider

Posted on by

Advisory committee on business appointments tells MP he must not utilise contacts in government in Lanistar role

The former cabinet minister Gavin Williamson has taken a job at a firm launching a payment card “built for the influencer lifestyle”, which was previously hit with a consumer warning by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and currently only offers its product in Brazil.

Williamson has gained permission to join the advisory board of Lanistar, whose website says it wants to roll out its virtual payment card and crypto services to the UK and EU.

Continue reading...

Odey Asset Management to shut after sexual misconduct allegations against founder

Posted on by

Financial institutions have cut ties with hedge fund set up by Brexiter and Conservative party donor

Odey Asset Management is closing down, five months after allegations of sexual misconduct made by junior female members of staff against its founder Crispin Odey threw the hedge fund into turmoil.

The business said on its website: “Odey Asset Management [OAM], including Brook Asset Management and Odey Wealth, will be closing. Fund managers and funds have moved to new asset managers.”

Continue reading...

FCA acts against PayPal and QVC as more Britons turn to buy now, pay later

Posted on by

Payments group and TV shopping channel change small print after financial regulator steps in

The City regulator has taken action after finding that customers of two leading buy now, pay later providers were “at risk of harm” because of potentially unfair and unclear small print.

The US-based online payments group PayPal and the TV shopping channel QVC have changed the terms of their contracts after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expressed “concern” over the impact to customers.

Continue reading...

KPMG boss says Carillion auditing was ‘very bad’ as firm is fined record £21m

Posted on by

Jon Holt says some employees ‘simply didn’t do their job properly’ in run-up to one of UK’s biggest corporate failures

The UK boss of KPMG has said he “simply cannot defend” the firm’s auditing work on the failed government contractor, Carillion, describing it as “very bad,” as the accounting giant was hit with a record £21m fine by Britain’s accounting watchdog.

The fine comes almost six years after the outsourcing firm collapsed with £7bn debts. Carillion had been one of the UK’s biggest construction and facilities management companies, with several major government contracts.

Continue reading...

Bond market sell-off sends UK long-term borrowing cost to 25-year high

Posted on by

Rate tops level last seen after Liz Truss mini-budget as fears of global inflation and US political instability spook markets

Britain’s long-term cost of borrowing has hit its highest level since 1998, as political instability in the US and fears of sustained high levels of inflation triggered a sell-off in global bond markets.

The yield, or interest rate, on 30-year UK government bonds hit 5.115% early on Wednesday, according to the financial data provider Refinitiv.

Continue reading...

City watchdog ex-chair says he faced ‘political pressure’ to let in crypto firms

Posted on by

Charles Randell says some of the exchanges the FCA was pressed to allow to trade in the UK are now being investigated in the US

The UK’s financial watchdog came under “political pressure” to welcome crypto firms into the British market, its former chairman has said.

Charles Randell, who stepped down as chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the spring, said it was an example of the kind of influence that elected politicians have tried to exert on independent regulators.

Continue reading...

HSBC more than doubles profits as interest rates soar

Posted on by

Bank says it earned £17bn in first half and will hand more money back to shareholders

HSBC more than doubled its profits in the first half of the year, as rising interest rates increased returns for the London-headquartered lender.

The bank reported pre-tax profits of $21.7bn (£17bn) in the first six months of 2023, up from $8.8bn during the same period last year, despiteputting aside more money to protect against potential defaults, as rising living costs put pressure on customers’ finances.

Continue reading...

UK banks are closing more than 1,000 accounts every day

Posted on by

Nigel Farage calls for royal commission as data shows big jump in customers being ‘debanked’

Banks are closing more than 1,000 accounts every working day, according to new data that has fuelled the growing row over so-called “debanking” and prompted Nigel Farage to call for a royal commission to investigate what he said was a scandal.

Hours after the former Ukip leader revealed he was spearheading a website to campaign on behalf of people whose accounts had been shut, data revealed a big jump in the numbers of customers dumped by their bank.

Continue reading...

NatWest was caught out by Nigel Farage’s deft political game

Posted on by

Tory anger over Coutts affair led to bank’s board feeling it had no choice but to sack CEO Alison Rose

Just after 5.40pm on Tuesday afternoon, the two people in charge of NatWest Group put out a joint statement. Dame Alison Rose, its chief executive, admitted she had been the source for an incendiary BBC story about Nigel Farage’s accounts at its exclusive private bank, while Sir Howard Davies, the bank’s chair, expressed his support for her remaining in charge of the lender.

Eight hours later, the bank had performed a dramatic reversal, having catastrophically misjudged the mood of its largest shareholder, the UK government. After last-minute interventions from both the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, board members convened for a late-night virtual call that was to spell the end of Rose’s 31-year career with the bank.

Continue reading...

New cryptocurrency offers users tokens for scanning their eyeballs

Posted on by

Worldcoin, launched by CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, says scheme will distinguish between ‘verified humans’ and AI

Members of the public are being invited to have their eyeballs scanned by a silver orb as part of cryptocurrency project that aims to use biometric verification to distinguish humans from AI systems.

People signing up to the Worldcoin scheme via an app this week will receive a “genesis grant” of 25 tokens, equivalent to about £40, after having their iris scanned by one of the bowling ball-sized devices.

Continue reading...

UBS to make $35bn in Credit Suisse takeover – but lose $17bn in rushed deal

Posted on by

UBS says it will absorb costs related to litigation, regulatory matters and liability adjustments in emergency rescue

UBS is in line to make an almost $35bn (£28bn) gain after its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse – but has said it will take a $17bn hit from costs related to the rushed rescue deal.

The Swiss lender has said it will make gains of $34.8bn after taking on Credit Suisse, based on an initial assessment of data until the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing. The accounting gain will be one of the biggest ever reported by a bank in a single quarter.

Continue reading...

Credit Suisse says £55bn left bank in lead-up to rescue by UBS

Posted on by

Results reported for what is likely to be the last time as lender’s takeover by Swiss rival nears completion

Credit Suisse said customers pulled more than 61bn Swiss francs (£55bn) worth of assets from the bank at the start of the year, laying bare the scale of the panic that contributed to its failure and emergency takeover by its rival UBS last month.

The Swiss lender said the “significant withdrawals” were partly to blame for its poor financial performance in the first quarter, with its adjusted pre-tax loss ballooning to 1.3bn Swiss francs for the first three months of the year. That compares with a profit of 300m Swiss francs during the same period in 2022.

Continue reading...