Warning comes after viral TikTok posts where customers purportedly tried to withdraw more money than they had
The US banking giant Chase has made clear that taking advantage of a system “glitch” to extract cash was “fraud, plain and simple” despite it becoming a TikTok trend.
Chase Bank’s warning on Monday came in response to viral social media posts where customers purportedly tried to withdraw more money than they had in their accounts by exploiting a banking system delay.
Continue reading...Matt Comyn tells parliamentary inquiry that criticism of business profits ‘erodes trust in institutions’
The Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn, has described a proposed excessive profits tax as “insidious populism” and labelled criticism of profitable businesses as “fact-free rhetoric” that is damaging trust in public institutions.
Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday, the head of Australia’s biggest bank appeared frustrated by questions about payment surcharges and corporate relationships and abruptly turned his attention to address criticism of big business.
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Continue reading...Rise to £675m after lifting EU bonus cap suggests lender may increase payouts to high-performing bankers
Barclays has bulked up its half-year bonus pool for the first time in three years, raising bankers’ hopes of bigger annual payouts after the lender formally scrapped the EU bonus cap this month.
The bank put £675m towards its bonus pool in the first six months of 2024, according to Barclays filings. That is up from the £665m put aside for its staff bonus pot, which is made up of cash and shares, over the same period in 2023. That bonus pool will continue to be built up until the end of the year, with staff able to be paid up to 10 times their salary now that the EU cap has been set aside.
Continue reading...UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and daughter among those thought to have been trapped when storm hit off Sicily
Six people are now presumed dead after the super yacht they were onboard sank in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.
Divers tried in vain on Tuesday to gain access to the inside of the sunken 56-metre Bayesian luxury vessel, where rescue crews believe those missing may have been trapped.
Continue reading...The average mortgage holder is parting with more than a fifth of their pre-tax income, double what they were spending in the 90s
Mortgage holders are spending well over 20% of their pre-tax income on their loans, representing one of the highest levels on record, data compiled by Commonwealth Bank shows.
It has rocketed in recent years amid rising interest rates and high living costs to a level last seen two decades ago when frothy property prices took hold before the 2008 global financial crisis.
Continue reading...Surge caused by rebound in market activity very likely to influence payouts for European outposts of banks
Bonuses for Wall Street’s investment bankers are forecast to jump as much as 35% this year – although experts have warned that payouts could be knocked by stock market volatility and an economic slowdown in the US.
Fresh predictions suggest that staff across a range of financial firms – including hedge funds, asset managers and investment banks – will see payouts rise for the first time in two years. It follows a rebound in business confidence and market activity, with companies more willing to take risks amid easing inflation that has started to translate into lower borrowing costs.
Continue reading...Federal government’s promise to force banks to reimburse scam victims criticised as ‘too vague’ and ‘a mess’
The government’s proposed reforms to laws on financial scams let the banking system off the hook, are inferior to policies applied overseas, are complicated for victims and will not be legislated before Australians lose many more billions of dollars, according to consumer advocates.
The scathing criticism comes after an address by the assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, who vowed on Wednesday to force banks, telcos and social media platforms to reimburse scam victims if their systems prove inadequate, as techniques used by fraudsters grow increasingly sophisticated.
Continue reading...Chief executive says tensions ‘not impacting’ business as bank reports pre-tax profits of $1.6bn for second quarter
Fears of a China trade war erupting under a second Trump presidential term are overblown, according to bosses at Standard Chartered bank, as they suggested that the country’s real estate woes were “largely in the rearview mirror”.
While the London-headquartered bank makes most of its money in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore, its chief executive, Bill Winters, played down the impact that increasingly strained relations between Washington and Beijing might have on the business.
Continue reading...Bank left with costs from Sir Trevor McDonald-fronted campaign after early election halted rollout
NatWest was forced to spend £24m on the former Conservative government’s aborted “Tell Sid”-style campaign featuring Sir Trevor McDonald, which would have resulted in a chunk of the bank’s state-owned shares being sold to the general public in a highly anticipated privatisation drive.
The price tag emerged when the bank released its second-quarter results and announced it was snapping up a number of mortgages from the smaller rival Metro Bank for £2.4bn.
Continue reading...Move paves way for fintech firm to hold customers’ deposits and offer own-branded loans, including mortgages
Revolut has secured a UK banking licence – with “restrictions” – more than three years after Britain’s most valuable fintech firm lodged its application with regulators.
It is a milestone for the company, though it may still be some time before it can hold its customers’ deposits.
Continue reading...IT support staff need to implement the fix in person, one computer at a time, experts have said
Supermarkets, banks, airlines and industries across Australia are slowly recovering on Saturday morning from the massive global Windows outage caused by a CrowdStrike software update gone wrong, with experts warning it could take weeks to resolve.
On Friday morning, the CEO of the Texas-based cybersecurity company, George Kurtz, apologised for the outage, and said it was not a cyber-attack, but a software update issue on its cloud-based cybersecurity platform Falcon for Microsoft Windows. It had since been fixed.
Continue reading...Revamp of 42-storey block when bank moves out in 2027 will include new terraces and leisure facilities
Canary Wharf Group has unveiled plans to remove large chunks from the HSBC tower as part of a revamp of the 42-storey office block when the bank moves out in 2027.
The property company said it would carve out sections of the tower’s facade to create terraces as part of plans to transform the office block – a skyscraper in the east London financial district – into a mixed-use building that would include leisure facilities and a public viewing gallery.
Continue reading...Lending puts banks in ‘complete violation’ of commitments to Paris agreement, climate group says, even as overall funding to sector ebbs
Australia’s big four banks are in “complete violation” of commitments to the Paris climate accord by funding fossil fuel expansion even as their overall lending to the sector continues to ebb, according to a new report.
The climate activist group Market Forces said in the report that the banks lent the industry $3.6bn in 2023, bringing their total loans to more than $61bn since 2015. Last year, though, was first year in the past eight that banks avoided explicitly backing a new or expanded fossil fuel project.
Continue reading...Agustín Carstens says world economy on course for ‘smooth landing’ after inflation but political turmoil poses risk
Rising government debt levels could disturb global financial markets, the head of the body that advises central banks said on Sunday before France’s high-stakes parliamentary elections.
Agustín Carstens, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), said the world economy was on course for a “smooth landing” from the inflation crisis, but he warned that policymakers, especially politicians, needed to be careful.
Continue reading...Finma watchdog says bank failed to carry out adequate checks of two high-risk business relationships
HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm breached money-laundering rules by failing to carry out adequate checks on the high-risk accounts of two politically exposed individuals, Switzerland’s banking regulator has found.
HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) has been banned from taking on any new high-risk customers until it has completed a full review of its business relationships, Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) said.
Continue reading...Move comes after consumer watchdog found banks were using pricing strategies that were highly complex or took advantage of the tendency to set and forget
People will be alerted each time their interest rate moves and when promotional offers expire under a suite of changes aimed at prodding bank customers to snag a better deal.
The federal government plans to act on a number of recommendations from two Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reports that found bank customers could earn and save more if not for barriers stopping them switching to better offers.
Continue reading...Julia Hoggett awarded damehood for services to business, while HSBC chair Mark Tucker receives knighthood
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The head of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the chair of HSBC are among the business leaders to be recognised this year in King Charles’s birthday honours list.
Julia Hoggett, a former banker who has been the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange since 2021, has been awarded a damehood for her services to business and finance.
Continue reading...Workers were sacked after review found they were ‘creating impression of active work’, says filing
The US bank Wells Fargo has fired more than a dozen workers for alleged “simulation of keyboard activity”, in an apparent attempt to fool their employer into thinking they were working.
The employees were “discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work”, according to a filing with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Continue reading...A 25 percentage point cut to main lending rate is forecast amid growth in Germany, Italy and Spain
Business activity grew across the eurozone at the fastest rate in a year in May while inflation cooled, according to data that will be welcomed by the European Central Bank (ECB) in advance of expected interest rate cuts tomorrow.
The latest HCOB purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data, compiled by S&P Global, showed private sector output expanded in most economies covered by the euro currency after growth in Germany, Italy and Spain was only marginally offset by a downturn in France.
Continue reading...New lower rates of 3.75% and 4.75% respectively are likely to be introduced this week after drops in inflation
Borrowers in the eurozone and in Canada are expected to get some relief from high interest rates this week.
After recent drops in inflation, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Canada (BoC) are forecast to lower their benchmark rates in the coming days.
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