Category Archives: Banking

JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank seek dismissal of lawsuits by Epstein accusers

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Women say banks enabled and ignored red flags about the financier’s sex trafficking

JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have asked a US judge to dismiss lawsuits by women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse and said the banks enabled and ignored red flags about the late financier’s sex trafficking.

The banks, in papers filed on Friday night in Manhattan federal court in New York, said they did not participate in or benefit from sex trafficking by their former client, and that the unnamed women failed to allege violations of a federal anti-trafficking law.

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US Virgin Islands suing JPMorgan Chase over Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking

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Documents accuse bank of ‘turning a blind eye’ to illegal activities committed by their client

The US Virgin Islands is suing the bank JPMorgan Chase, accusing it of helping Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of women and girls, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York.

The documents submitted by the US Virgin Islands’ (USVI) attorney general accuse JPMorgan of “turning a blind eye” to illegal activities committed by Epstein – a client of the bank – on his private island, Little St James, which is part of the Caribbean US territory.

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£1.1bn in fees, 3.1m hours, 14 years: the UK cost of winding up Lehman Brothers

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PwC, administrator of Lehman’s London arm since bank’s failure in 2008, secures three more years to finish process

Administrators will spend at least three more years winding up the London-based arm of Lehman Brothers, swelling the almost £1.1bn in fees that PwC has already raked in since the bank’s calamitous collapse in 2008.

PwC has secured court approval to extend the administration process for the investment bank’s European hub to 2025, given the “complexity of unwinding the group’s affairs” after one of the biggest corporate failures in history.

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China’s move to ease Covid travel restrictions lifts hopes for global economy

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Analysts says lifting of many rules may soften impact of higher interest rates and unblock supply chains in 2023

China’s decision to ease rules on travel in and out of the country, the world’s second-largest economy, has offered investors hope that it could soften the toll from higher interest rates on global stock markets and unblock supply chains amid a dark outlook for 2023.

Chinese authorities said late on Monday that inbound travellers would not have to quarantine on arrival, from 8 January onward. The announcement marked the latest in a series of steps to reopen the country, which is home to vital global supply chains and 1.4 billion people.

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TSB fined £48m over ‘serious failings’ in IT meltdown

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FCA penalises bank after millions of customers were locked out of their accounts for weeks

City regulators have fined TSB £48m for “widespread and serious” failings related to the IT meltdown in 2018 that left millions of banking customers locked out of their accounts for weeks.

The long-awaited fine is expected to draw a line under the scandal, which tarnished the challenger bank’s reputation and forced its chief executive to step down within months of the botched move to a new IT platform.

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Goldman Sachs bankers brace for hefty cut to bonuses

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Bonus pool could be slashed by up to 40%, in possibly the lender’s largest cut to payouts since the financial crisis

Goldman Sachs bankers are reportedly at risk of having their bonus pool slashed by up to 40%, in what could be the lender’s largest cut to payouts since the 2008 financial crisis.

The bank is still in the process of deciding the size of its bonus pools for 2022, but the prospective cut could mean its 3,000 investment bankers endure the most significant drop in variable pay among their peers, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the news.

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Australia’s banks likely to reduce lending to regions and sectors at risk of climate change impacts, regulator says

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Apra finds country’s banks may be more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face threefold increase in lending losses

Banks expect to reduce lending to households and businesses in northern Australia and to fossil fuel industries across the country as the risk of losses due to the climate crisis escalates, the industry regulator says.

A new report by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) found climate change could make banks more vulnerable to economic downturns as they face up to a threefold increase in lending losses by 2050, but that the system should be able to absorb the impact.

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Major funds exposed to companies allegedly engaged in Uyghur repression in China

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Report finds stock indexes provided by MSCI include companies using forced labour or constructing surveillance state in Xinjiang

Many of the world’s largest asset managers and state pension funds are passively investing in companies that have allegedly engaged in the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China, according to a new report.

The report, by UK-based group Hong Kong Watch and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University, found that three major stock indexes provided by MSCI include at least 13 companies that have allegedly used forced labour or been involved in the construction of the surveillance state in China’s Xinjiang region.

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G4S strike prompts fears of festive cash shortages at banks and shops

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More than 1,000 staff who deliver money to firms such as Barclays, Asda and Tesco to take action

More than 1,000 security workers who deliver cash and coins to some of the UK’s biggest banks and supermarkets have voted to strike in December, raising the prospect of potential cash shortages in the run-up to Christmas.

The 48-hour strike by 1,156 members of the GMB union who work for the security company G4S is due to take place from 3am on 5 December, after a 97% vote in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay. However, only 665 workers voted in the ballot, a turnout of 58%.

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Revealed: UK local councils deposit taxpayers’ cash in Qatar state bank

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Town halls and finance firms say they support LGBT rights but send money to World Cup host where homosexuality is illegal

The rainbow flag flew above the Bourne Corn Exchange as South Kesteven council embraced LGBT history month.

A year after voting against such a gesture the Lincolnshire local authority declared itself pleased “to celebrate and recognise the […] rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people”, hoisting the flag outside its headquarters in 2019.

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FTSE 100 firms hand billions in dividend payouts to Qatar investors

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Critics say everyday UK consumer spending has funnelled billions to controversial World Cup host since 2010

Some of the UK’s largest listed companies including water and energy giants have handed almost £500m to Qatari state-owned investors this year, raising concerns that blue-chip company profits are supporting the controversial World Cup host.

The dividend payouts are the result of the Gulf nation’s investments in a raft of FTSE 100 firms, including Barclays, Shell and utility firm Severn Trent, which have reported strong profits amid a cost of living crisis and the worst UK drought in centuries.

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Oligarch renounces Russian citizenship over Ukraine war

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Oleg Tinkov, who has previously spoken out against the conflict, says he ‘won’t be associated with a fascist country’

The billionaire banker and entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov has renounced his Russian citizenship because of the conflict in Ukraine, which he has previously criticised.

“I have taken the decision to exit my Russian citizenship. I can’t and won’t be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their peaceful neighbour and killing innocent people daily,” Tinkov said.

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US court drops Libor rate-rigging charges against ex-UBS trader

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Judge dismisses case against British former trader Tom Hayes, who was jailed over interest rate scandal

A New York court has dismissed a criminal indictment against Tom Hayes, the British former trader at UBS and Citigroup who served five and a half years in a UK prison for rigging the Libor lending benchmark.

Prosecutors in the US filed a motion to dismiss the case against Hayes and another former UBS trader, Roger Darin.

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Labor government locks in compensation scheme for financial misconduct victims despite ‘god-like powers’ warnings

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Minister for financial services says government’s accountability regime is ‘locked and loaded’ and will not be changed

The Labor government will push ahead with a new compensation scheme for victims of financial misconduct, refusing to water down civil penalties for the finance sector, and rejecting a claim it would give the responsible minister “god-like powers” to punish banks.

The assistant treasurer and minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, said the government’s financial accountability regime was “locked and loaded” and will not be changed, and rejected Liberal senator Andrew Bragg’s call to have parliament determine the scope of a new levy on financial industry members that will pay for the scheme.

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Credit Suisse to cut 9,000 jobs and seek billions in new investment

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Shake-up aims to draw line under series of scandals and new £3.5bn loss at Swiss bank

Credit Suisse has disclosed sweeping plans to cut 9,000 jobs and raise billions of pounds from investors in a Saudi-led funding round, as part of a company-wide overhaul meant to draw a line under a series of scandals and help it recover from a £3.5bn loss.

The announcement follows months of speculation over the scale of change scheduled under its new boss, Ulrich Körner, who has been tasked with scaling back the investment bank and slashing costs.

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Lloyds bank profits plunge by 26% as lender prepares for bad loans

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Larger-than-forecast drop to £1.5bn in third quarter came despite rising interest rates

Profits at Lloyds Banking Group dropped by 26% in the three months to September, as the UK’s “deteriorating” economic outlook forced it to put aside nearly £670m to protect against potential defaults on loans and mortgages.

Lloyds, which owns Halifax and is the country’s largest mortgage lender, said pre-tax profits had tumbled to £1.5bn in the third quarter, down from £2bn during the same period last year. That was larger than the 9.5% fall to £1.8bn that analysts had predicted.

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Barclays could be fined £50m for failing to disclose 2008 Qatari deal

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Provisional fine relates to £322m bank paid to Gulf state allegedly in exchange for £4bn investment to save lender from bailout

The City watchdog could fine Barclays up to £50m for failing to disclose a deal struck with Qatar at the height of the financial crisis, reviving a controversial episode that failed to gain traction in UK courts.

The provisional fine – which Barclays is in the process of appealing against – relates to the £322m the bank paid to Qatar in 2008, allegedly in exchange for the gas-rich Gulf state investing £4bn, helping save the lender from a UK government bailout.

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UK’s 13-year housing market boom to end in 2023, surveyors predict

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RICS report says rise in repossessions will add to supply while soaring interest rates price buyers out of market

Homeowners will struggle to make mortgage repayments and repossessions will rise next year as soaring interest rates and falling prices mark the end of the UK’s 13-year housing market boom, according to a sobering report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The number of inquiries from potential homebuyers fell for a fifth month in a row in September, while sales fell to the lowest level since May 2020 when the housing market all but ground to a halt during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, it said.

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The Bank of England’s lifeboat is in choppy waters with its bond buying

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Pensions hedging crisis shows how the City never seems equipped to handle the next big financial hazard

Pension funds have found themselves embroiled in a byzantine world of exotic financial trading that many of them appear to have badly misunderstood.

On Tuesday, a third rescue mission in little more than a fortnight was announced by the Bank of England, which is reprising its role in the 2008 financial crisis as the City’s lifeboat.

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Rise in UK borrowers falling behind on mortgage payments, says Santander

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Boss says bank is putting aside more money for potential defaults linked to cost of living crisis

The boss of Santander UK says the bank is putting aside more money for potential defaults linked to the cost of living crisis after seeing a pickup in customers falling behind on mortgage and loan payments.

Mike Regnier told the Guardian that he was keeping a close eye on the “strain and pressure” facing customers as a result of the cost of living crisis, which has made it harder for some households to keep up with rising food and energy bills and financial commitments such as home loans.

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