Category Archives: Financial Conduct Authority

More than 5,000 investors now suing Hargreaves Lansdown

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Claims management company expects claims over collapsed Neil Woodford fund to exceed £200m

More than 5,000 people who invested in Neil Woodford’s collapsed equity fund are suing Hargreaves Lansdown, claiming that the investment platform was still promoting the fund even when it was aware of its problems.

The number of people suing Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest investment site, has almost doubled in the past two years, according to the claims management firm RGL Management. Two years ago the number of people taking part stood at 2,750.

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Reeves tells City regulator to encourage more risk-taking in financial sector

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New remit given to FCA by chancellor raises fears of a weakening of rules meant to avert another financial crisis

The financial regulator has been ordered to encourage more risk-taking across the City, raising concerns that the Labour government is in danger of watering down rules meant to avoid another financial crisis.

In an official “remit” letter addressed to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) boss, Nikhil Rathi, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said regulations meant to protect consumers should not stand in the way of “sensible risk-taking” by investors and the wider financial sector, which includes banks, asset managers and insurers.

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Lloyds shareholders could take £1bn hit over car finance crisis

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Analysts forecast bank will have to halve £2bn buyback plan, as ex-boss of City regulator blames watchdog for crisis

Lloyds Banking Group could give almost £1bn less to shareholders this year as a result of the car finance crisis, analysts have said, as the City regulator’s former boss blamed the watchdog for the chaos.

The estimated size of a multibillion-pound compensation bill for motor lenders has grown after a shock court of appeal ruling last Friday, which said customers could not consent to motor loans that involved “secret commission” payments to brokers and car dealerships.

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Regulators urged to examine UK business dealings with Bangladeshi ex-minister

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HMRC and FCA asked to look into property deals with Saifuzzaman Chowdhury now under investigation for corruption in Dhaka

British regulators have been urged by MPs to examine the relationship between London estate agents, lawyers and lenders and a former Bangladeshi government minister under investigation for alleged corruption.

Saifuzzaman Chowdhury was the land minister in Bangladesh until earlier this year, when the government of Sheikh Hasina was spectacularly toppled, after her regime’s violent suppression of student protests.

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Lack of City of London oversight hurting efforts to halt dirty money, FCA warns

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Bodies responsible for monitoring accounting and legal sectors not doing enough to stop money laundering, watchdog says

A lack of proper oversight across the City of London’s network of lawyers, bookkeepers and accountants is hampering efforts to crack down on dirty money being funnelled through the UK, the City watchdog has warned.

The latest report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) flagged concerns over the work of the UK’s 25 professional bodies – which oversee the accounting and legal sectors – and found that some were spending as little as £73 a year on anti-money laundering supervision or were outsourcing it entirely to third parties.

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Banks warned over denying sex workers business accounts

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FCA gives detailed guidance to lenders after hearing lack of access could lead to ‘significant harm’ for individuals

The City regulator has warned UK banks over denying accounts for sex workers, after hearing that a lack of access to business banking could lead to “significant harm” for individuals.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that while banks said they were able to provide accounts for the adult entertainment industry in theory, they were often denying or shutting down business accounts in practice.

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Surprise jump in number of UK people mainly using cash for daily spending

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Banking body reports increase to 1.5m in 2023 – the highest since before Covid – despite move to cashless society

There has been an unexpected jump in the number of people who mainly use notes and coins for their daily spending, despite the UK moving closer to becoming a cashless society, a report has found.

The volume of contactless and mobile payments increased last year, while the number of cash payments resumed a downward trajectory after enjoying a brief comeback in 2022, the banking body UK Finance noted in its annual report on the UK payments market.

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Millions more in cash needed to fund UK’s open-banking watchdog

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Exclusive: £10m needed for regulator charged with developing tools to thwart financial crime and protect consumers

Banks are under pressure to stump up millions of pounds in interim funding for the organisation that polices open banking, with regulators saying the new money is needed to prevent financial crime and protect consumers if things “go wrong”.

Large banks including NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander UK were among more than 40 City firms summoned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last week to discuss a cash injection into Open Banking Limited (OPL), the body that oversees innovation in this area.

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Fujitsu won £1.4bn in new government contracts after court ruling on Post Office software bugs

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MPs find Treasury-affiliated bodies have engaged Horizon firm since damning 2019 high court judgment

The Japanese technology company Fujitsu, whose flawed technology for the Post Office led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, is confirmed to have held contracts worth more than £3.4bn linked to the Treasury since 2019.

Figures published by the Commons’ treasury committee show £1.4bn of contracts were awarded to Treasury-affiliated organisations after a high court ruling in December 2019 over the company’s software. The judgment found that “bugs, errors and defects” in Fujitsu’s Horizon system could cause shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Collapsed hospital operator NMC Health misled markets over £3.2bn of debt, says watchdog

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FCA censures former FTSE 100 company but stops short of a fine as no funds are expected to be left

The financial watchdog has found that collapsed hospital operator NMC Health committed market abuse by understating its debts by as much as $4bn (£3.2bn).

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) censured the former FTSE 100 company on Friday for misleading the market but stopped short of fining it as no funds are expected to be left at the business once outstanding debts to creditors are paid out.

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

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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.

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NatWest decision to close Nigel Farage’s bank accounts was lawful, says report

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Investigation for bank finds however that there were ‘serious failings’ in handling of Coutts move and treatment of ex-Ukip leader

NatWest group’s decision to close Nigel Farage’s accounts at its private bank Coutts was lawful, but there were “serious failings” in its treatment of the former Ukip leader, an independent review has found.

Lawyers hired by NatWest determined that Coutts had a “contractual right” to shut Farage’s accounts, and had done so because the bank was losing money by keeping him as a client.

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

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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.

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Direct Line to pay £30m to overcharged car and home insurance customers

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Company breached rules that state existing policyholders should not be charged more than new ones

Direct Line will pay about £30m to customers who were charged more than they should have been to renew car and home insurance policies.

The UK’s second biggest car insurer said it discovered the overcharging problem after the incorrect implementation of the new pricing practice regulation that came into force in January last year. Under the rules, existing customers should not be charged more than if they were a new customer.

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UK banks will have to ensure access to cash within three miles, ministers say

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Treasury hints at concessions on guarantee but banks will face fines for falling below minimum service level

High street banks will have to ensure customers can find access to cash within three miles of their local communities, and those falling below the minimum service level will face a fine, the government has confirmed.

After the closure of thousands of local branches in recent years, and the switch to digital payment methods, ministers are looking to banks to help protect vulnerable groups and elderly customers by maintaining present levels of cash access across the UK.

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Jeremy Hunt requests inquiry into ‘debanking’ of politicians

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Chancellor wants Financial Conduct Authority to investigate whether practice is ‘widespread’

Jeremy Hunt has asked the financial regulator to urgently investigate whether banks are barring politicians from accounts on a “widespread” basis, after Nigel Farage had his account shut down by private bank Coutts.

The chancellor said everyone must be able to express their opinions and people must have access to banking.

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Nigel Farage says new Coutts boss has offered to keep his accounts open

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Former Ukip leader is still taking legal action against bank demanding compensation and apology

Nigel Farage has said that the newly installed boss of Coutts has offered to keep his accounts there open, reversing a decision that triggered a scandal and the resignation of the private bank’s previous chief executive.

The former Ukip leader said he welcomed the offer but was still taking legal action against NatWest, which owns Coutts, demanding compensation, a full apology and a face-to-face meeting with the banking group’s bosses.

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

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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.

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