Category Archives: Banking

Banks need stricter controls to prevent romance fraud, says City regulator

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FCA cites study showing victims’ ‘red flags’ are often missed and calls for improved monitoring systems

The City regulator has called on banks and payment firms to bring in stricter controls protecting customers from romance fraud after a study showed a number of missed “red flags” that led to people losing huge sums of money.

The review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted one case where someone lost £428,000, another where a customer made 403 payments totalling £72,000 to a fraudster and a case where someone wanted money to transfer cryptocurrency to their “partner” in Iraq.

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Westpac makes it harder for younger customers to earn advertised interest rates

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Bank joins smaller competitors in changing interest-related restrictions on some accounts – despite RBA leaving interest rates unchanged in September

Westpac is tightening conditions on its savings account for younger customers as growing numbers of banks make it harder to earn advertised interest rates on their deposits.

The bank has joined smaller competitors in changing interest-related restrictions on some accounts – despite the Reserve Bank of Australia leaving interest rates on hold in September.

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HSBC makes £10bn bet on Hong Kong as ‘super-connector’ for China and west

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Deal will mean Hang Seng Bank’s shares are taken off local stock exchange as HSBC doubles down on Asian business

HSBC is shelling out £10bn to take its Hong Kong subsidiary private, in a move it said was designed to take advantage of the financial hub’s role as a “super-connector” between China and global markets.

The deal will result in Hang Seng Bank’s shares being taken off the local stock exchange as London-headquartered HSBC doubles down on its Asian business and snaps up the 36.5% of shares it does not already own.

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HSBC makes £10bn bet on Hong Kong as ‘super-connector’ for China and west

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Deal will mean Hang Seng Bank’s shares are taken off local stock exchange as HSBC doubles down on Asian business

HSBC is shelling out £10bn to take its Hong Kong subsidiary private, in a move it said was designed to take advantage of the financial hub’s role as a “super-connector” between China and global markets.

The deal will result in Hang Seng Bank’s shares being taken off the local stock exchange as London-headquartered HSBC doubles down on its Asian business and snaps up the 36.5% of shares it does not already own.

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UK bank shares tumble after call for windfall tax on lenders in budget

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Investor jitters follow report by IPPR, with stock market value of sector cut by almost £8bn in morning trading

UK bank shares tumbled on Friday, cutting the stock market value of the sector by almost £8bn in morning trading, as fresh calls for a windfall tax on large lenders in the autumn budget spooked investors.

Calls for a tax grab, in a paper written by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank, took a toll on some of the UK’s biggest high street banks. NatWest Group suffered the biggest drop on Friday morning, registering a decline of as much as 5% in its share price, while Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays followed close behind, falling 4.5% and 3.6% respectively. HSBC dropped more than 1%.

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Norway wealth fund sells Caterpillar stake over Israel allegations

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World’s largest wealth fund says it has excluded bulldozer maker and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds

The world’s largest wealth fund has excluded Caterpillar, the construction equipment manufacturer, over Israel’s use of its bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank.

Norway’s $2tn (£1.5tn) fund said on Monday it had excluded Caterpillar and five Israeli banking groups on ethics grounds.

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Commonwealth Bank urged to repay fees of 2 million low-income customers after posting record profit

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Australia’s biggest bank delivers bumper payout to shareholders as CBA vows to end lending to coal companies with no net zero plans

The Commonwealth bank has posted a record cash profit, sparking renewed calls for Australia’s biggest bank to repay more than 2 million low-income customers $270m in fees – something it has refused to do.

CBA recorded $10.25bn in annual cash profits for the year to June – a 4% lift on the previous year – and gave a bumper $2.60 payout per share to shareholders.

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Santander mortgage cap jumps by as much as 24% as bank eases lending rules

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Some higher-earning couples with smaller deposits could borrow extra £130,000 as a result of overnight changes

Some couples applying for a Santander mortgage will see the maximum they can borrow increase by £130,000 overnight after the bank loosened its lending rules.

Santander is the latest in a line of lenders to allow some borrowers to access bigger mortgages after intervention by the City regulator and new guidelines from the Bank of England designed to help more people on to the housing ladder.

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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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Chancellor’s attempt to intervene in car finance scandal branded ‘disgraceful’

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Defending industry over consumers sends ‘really bad message’, says Treasury committee member Bobby Dean

Rachel Reeves’ efforts to intervene in the supreme court case on the car finance scandal were “unprecedented and disgraceful” and send a “really bad message” to consumers that the government is willing to defend wrongdoing by banks, Treasury committee member and Lib Dem MP Bobby Dean has said.

While the supreme court largely sided with finance companies on Friday – helping lenders avoid a £44bn compensation bill – Dean said the chancellor had gone too far to show she was on the side of business.

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Chancellor’s attempt to intervene in car finance scandal branded ‘disgraceful’

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Defending industry over consumers sends ‘really bad message’, says Treasury committee member Bobby Dean

Rachel Reeves’ efforts to intervene in the supreme court case on the car finance scandal were “unprecedented and disgraceful” and send a “really bad message” to consumers that the government is willing to defend wrongdoing by banks, Treasury committee member and Lib Dem MP Bobby Dean has said.

While the supreme court largely sided with finance companies on Friday – helping lenders avoid a £44bn compensation bill – Dean said the chancellor had gone too far to show she was on the side of business.

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HSBC boss says Rachel Reeves putting up bank taxes would harm UK growth

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Georges Elhedery’s comments come amid speculation the chancellor could make such a move in autumn budget

The boss of HSBC has joined a growing chorus of bankers cautioning Rachel Reeves against increasing taxes on banks in her autumn budget, warning it risked “eroding” investment and ultimately harming UK growth.

Georges Elhedery, its chief executive, said banks in the UK were already subject to the highest level of taxes on profits compared with other sectors, and paid more than in most other countries. He said placing further financial pressures on lenders could spell trouble for the UK economy.

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NatWest investors given £1.5bn weeks after full privatisation

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Profits rise 4.4% at lender, which plans to distribute interim dividend of 9.5p a share on top of fresh £750m buyback

NatWest will give a further £1.5bn to shareholders only weeks after the UK government sold the final part of its stake in the once bailed-out bank.

The high street lender on Friday announced plans to distribute an interim dividend of 9.5p a share, worth a collective £768m, on top of a fresh £750m share buyback in the second half of the year.

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HSBC becomes first UK bank to quit industry’s net zero alliance

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Campaigners condemn ‘troubling’ move that follows departure of six of largest US banks after Trump’s election

HSBC has become the first UK bank to leave the global banking industry’s net zero target-setting group, as campaigners warned it was a “troubling” sign over the lender’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

The move risks triggering further departures from the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) by UK banks, in a fresh blow to international climate coordination efforts.

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Australia’s big four banks not making it easy for customers to get bonus interest despite watchdog’s calls

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Guardian analysis found no major bank has adopted ACCC recommendations in full – but NAB, CommBank, Westpac and ANZ say they offer in-app alerts

Australia’s big banks have not implemented several recommendations designed to help customers qualify for bonus interest rates on savings products, more than 18 months after the regulatory advice was issued.

Two in three customers of bonus accounts miss out on the headline interest rate and instead receive a far smaller base rate, an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry found in late 2023.

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Zopa launches current account with cashback and 7.1% on savings

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Digital bank hopes to tempt switchers with package including in-credit interest and fee-free travel spending

The battle for bank customers intensified this week, with a new player entering the UK current account market and offering cashback on bills and access to a savings account paying 7.1%.

Digital bank Zopa is hoping the perks – which also include in-credit interest and fee-free spending abroad – will tempt switchers to its first day-to-day account.

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Barclays and Jes Staley face fresh lawsuit in US over Epstein link

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Judge rejects former CEO’s request to dismiss case, paving way for class action also against chair Nigel Higgins

Barclays and its former chief executive Jes Staley are facing a class action lawsuit in the US over claims they defrauded and misled investors over Staley’s relationship with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A judge in a Los Angeles court denied Staley’s request to dismiss the case this week, paving the way for a fresh hearing that continues a long-running legal saga emanating from Staley’s statements to regulators and investors over the nature of his ties to the disgraced financier.

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News Corp boss earns $42m as highest-paid CEO of Australian-listed company

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Analysis shows local chiefs earning 55 times more than average workers in Australia amid call to keep watch for ‘egregious’ bonuses

News Corp’s chief executive has become the highest-paid CEO of an Australian-listed company, a new analysis of CEO pay has found.

CEOs of ASX-listed companies are still being paid 55 times more than average workers in Australia but the gap is yet to widen to extremes seen overseas, according to the annual analysis from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI).

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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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Lex Greensill says SoftBank managers ‘felt threatened’ by his links to founder

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Financier tells court he travelled to Tokyo ‘often weekly’ for mentoring sessions with Masayoshi Son

The financier Lex Greensill has told a court that senior managers at SoftBank “felt threatened” by his relationship with Masayoshi Son, the founder of the Japanese tech investor that pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in his specialist lender before its collapse.

Greensill said he travelled to Tokyo “often weekly” for in-person mentoring sessions with the billionaire founder, who he dined with and referred to by the Japanese honorific “Son-san”. Greensill made the comments in his first public courtroom appearance since the devastating demise in 2021 of his company, which counted former prime minister David Cameron as an adviser.

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