FCA pushes back on union recognition demands November 17, 2021 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has pushed back on union demands to give official recognition to Unite the Union as the representative of staff at the watchdog. The new Unite general secretary Sharon Graham wrote to the regulator’s CEO Nikhil Rathi ten days ago, alleging that “staff at the Financial Conduct Authority are flooding to [...]
Millions more Brits in debt as debt pile owed to HMRC balloons to £42bn November 17, 2021 Around 2.4m more taxpayers are in debt to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as tax debt is at more than double its pre-pandemic levels, according to a spending watchdog. In fact, tax debt ballooned by £26bn between January 2020 and September of this year. Staffing levels at HMRC are unlikely to be enough to manage [...]
Prince Andrew’s £1.5m loan reportedly paid off by conservative party donor November 16, 2021 One of the conservative party’s top donors reportedly transferred £1.5m to Prince Andrew days after he borrowed a similar amount from a Luxembourg bank. David Rowland sent the money to a London account at Banque Havilland SA in December 2017 which was held by Prince Andrew, Bloomberg News first reported. The wire transfer came from a company [...]
Voyager to launch crypto debit card powered by Mastercard November 16, 2021 A US-listed crypto platform has today announced plans to launch the first crypto-based debit card powered by Mastercard’s payments system. The Voyager debit card will let cardholders instantly spend their crypto assets by automatically converting USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the value of the dollar, to fiat currency in order to transact on the Mastercard [...]
City watchdog gives banks reprieve on LIBOR contracts November 16, 2021 The City watchdog will allow banks and other financial institutions to use a watered down version of a much-lamented interest rate benchmark for existing contracts. Banks will be able to apply the LIBOR benchmark on existing pound and yen denominated contracts which have not been restructured on to a new rate until the end of [...]
Post-Brexit payments space is ‘breeding ground for financial crime as Wild West culture’ looms, warns rising City star November 16, 2021 After the UK left the European Union, a range of payment providers reported so-called IBAN discrimination as a number of companies across Europe began to refuse Euro account bank details if they contained the country code ‘GB’. As a result of Brexit, sending a payment to Eurozone countries resulted in additional charges. Whilst the fee is [...]
‘It’s a pivotal time’ November 16, 2021 | Sponsored Interview with Simon Kenyon, Group Ambassador for London, Lloyds Banking Group Taking the pulse of London’s financial health is not easy: for every business that’s thriving, or at least showing ‘bouncebackability’ from the pandemic, there are others struggling to keep the wolf from the door. But the economic pulse is beating a little faster inside the [...]
JP Morgan: Hong Kong Covid measures create tough hiring climate, says Dimon November 15, 2021 Hong Kong’s strict Covid-19 pandemic restrictions have reportedly created a tough hiring environment for JP Morgan, boss Jamie Dimon said. The city state has some of the world’s most stringent emergency pandemic measures, with inbound travellers having to quarantine in hotels for as long as three weeks form some countries. Dimon said earlier today that [...]
Starling Bank CEO: Barclays ‘firmly in our sights’ as we’ll be bigger within five years November 15, 2021 Barclays is firmly on the radar of Starling Bank’s senior management, as the company said it is working to overtake the Canary Wharf-based banking giant in the business banking market within the next five years. The bold predictions come as the digital lending disruptor is getting ready for a stock market float. Starling’s founder and [...]
Bank of England defends fossil fuel funding to Extinction Rebellion November 14, 2021 The Bank of England (BoE) reportedly tried to appease Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests earlier this year, as the climate activist group targeted City fossil fuel financing. In emails with XR members, the central bank urged that government instead has the “primary levers for driving the economy-wide transition to net-zero emissions”, The Telegraph first reported. In [...]