Lloyds taps $160bn fintech giant to boost small business tech June 9, 2026 Lloyds Bank has sealed a partnership with a $160bn (£119bn) fintech giant to ramp up its payments tech for small-business clients. The blue-chip banking giant has agreed a tie-up with Stripe that will see Lloyds leverage the fintech’s payment infrastructure to provide a suite of tools for its small-business customers. The new offering, named Lloyds Accept, [...]
Fifa charging World Cup fans £59 for ‘shoutouts’ in new money-making scheme June 9, 2026 Fifa is charging football fans £59 to have their name announced before matches at the 2026 World Cup, which starts this week. For $79 (£59), supporters can buy a “Super Shoutout” to have their name read out and appear on the stadium scoreboard before any fixture at the World Cup. It is the latest money-making [...]
Britain to offer visa refunds to woo tech scale-ups June 9, 2026 The government will reimburse visa fees for high-growth firms hiring overseas talent as ministers step up efforts to turn Britain’s most promising scale-ups into global tech champions. Business secretary Peter Kyle is set to unveil a package of measures aimed at helping fast-growing companies “start, scale and stay” in the UK, including a new concierge-style [...]
‘Novel and extreme’: Analysts calls out SpaceX governance days before IPO June 9, 2026 Analysts and major institutional investors have expressed alarm over the corporate governance of SpaceX as its Wall Street debut creeps closer. The concerns from institutional investors, in particular public pension funds, over corporate governance at Elon Musk’s space tech company “run deep”, with firms in New York and California deeming the structure “novel and extreme”. [...]
Molten Ventures shares surge as it offloads Revolut stake June 9, 2026 Shares in Molten Ventures surged on Tuesday morning after the startup investor confirmed it had sold down its stake in Revolut. The FTSE 250 firm said it made £63m from the share sale, adding that it still had a stake in the company worth more than £100m following the disposal. Molten was an early investor [...]
Palantir to sue Khan over blocked Met police contract June 9, 2026 Palantir is set to sue Sadiq Khan after the London Mayor blocked a £50m contract with the Metropolitan Police, claiming the tech giant does not reflect the City’s values. In May, Khan vetoed the deal in which Palantir would have supported Scotland Yard with AI technology, over concerns about the Met’s procurement process, claiming they had failed [...]
Banks ‘not ready’ for motor finance scheme, says City watchdog June 9, 2026 The City watchdog has warned that motor finance lenders are “not as ready as we would expect” for the introduction of its long-awaited redress scheme. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has written to the Treasury Committee following inquiries around the legal challenges to its car mis-selling scheme. The regulator published [...]
Government aid ‘worth £28bn’ handed to terrorists, criminals and hostile states June 9, 2026 Billions of pounds of UK taxpayers’ money has been misspent as government aid and Covid relief funds ended up in the hands of terrorists, hostile states and criminal gangs, according to reports. A Cabinet Office dossier, unearthed by the Telegraph, found that more than £28bn ended up in the hands of the Islamic State and [...]
British businesses celebrated at The King’s Awards for Enterprise June 9, 2026 British businesses have been recognised for their contribution to economic growth and innovation as The King’s Awards for Enterprise mark their 60th anniversary, with 186 recipients announced across the UK and Channel Islands. The awards, widely regarded as the most prestigious accolade for UK businesses, celebrate achievement in international trade, innovation, sustainability and social mobility. [...]
Regulator opens probe into PwC over WH Smith audit debacle June 9, 2026 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched an investigation into PwC over its audit of WH Smith that resulted in delayed annual results last year. Last August, WH Smith shares plummeted by up to 40 per cent after it admitted to an accounting error that overstated expected headline trading profit in its North American business [...]