Credit Suisse took suspicious invoices as backing for £114m Greensill loan December 12, 2022 Credit Suisse accepted suspicious invoices from Sanjeev Gupta’s metals empire as collateral for a $140m (£114m) loan to Greensill Capital, just months before it collapsed in October 2020, according to reports. The Swiss bank accepted invoices, issued by Gupta’s Liberty Commodities and sold to Greensill, as collateral on the loan, even though several of the [...]
EU to push for greater sanctions compliance with new special envoy December 12, 2022 The EU is set to put one of its top civil servants to the task of pushing for greater compliance with sanctions against Russia, in third-countries including Turkey, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). David O’Sullivan, the bloc’s former ambassador to the US, is set to take up a new role in January, in [...]
New York law firm ups pay for newly trained London lawyers to £165,000 a year December 12, 2022 New York law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges has become one of the City’s highest paying firms after hiking salaries for its newly-qualified lawyers to heights of £165,000 a year. Weil Gotshal’s £5,000 pay hikes for NQs in its London office puts the New York headquartered firm in fourth place in the ongoing pay battle [...]
FTSE 100 firms hit with four times more fines than last year December 12, 2022 The value of fines against FTSE 100 companies has increased fourfold over the previous year, Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence research shows. Companies on the FTSE 100 index received £1.6bn in fines in the year ending on 30 June 2022, compared to just £354m worth of fines in the previous year. The £1.6bn figure marks an [...]
Severe flooding could cost insurers more than £1bn this winter December 12, 2022 Severe flooding this winter could cost UK insurers more than £1bn, according to analysis from PwC. Storm Eunice in February led to insurers losing £200-300m, mainly as a result of disruption to travel and damage to properties and vehicles due to falling trees. However, floods on the same scale as those seen in 2015 [...]
Law firms up billable hours targets as sector’s profits slide December 11, 2022 Top law firms have begun upping pressure on lawyers by hiking targets for the number of billable hours they are expected to work each year, according to new research. UK law firms are increasingly calling on their lawyers to bill more hours as they seek to reverse the sector’s declining profitability and weather the oncoming [...]
EU lawmaker arrested in Qatar corruption probe December 11, 2022 A top-ranking member of the European Parliament has been suspended from her job after being arrested by Belgian police in a Qatar World Cup corruption probe. Greek MEP Eva Kaili was suspended from her job as one of the EU parliament’s fourteen vice-presidents after being detained in the investigation into potential bribes paid by [...]
Linklaters becomes second Magic Circle law firm to launch apprenticeship scheme December 11, 2022 Linklaters has become the second of the UK’s elite ‘Magic Circle’ law firms to offer aspiring solicitors an alternate route to becoming a high-flying lawyer, after launching its own apprenticeship scheme. The City law firm’s new scheme will see six school leavers undergo on-the-job training over a six-year period, following which they will become fully [...]
Knightsbridge fund managers convicted for defrauding Libya’s sovereign fund December 8, 2022 A trio of fund managers have been convicted of carrying a large-scale fraud that saw Libya’s sovereign wealth fund lose £46m. The three men, who managed £822m worth of investments on behalf of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAIP), defrauded the fund through a series of offshore shell companies. The fraud came after London bankers [...]
Travers Smith calls juniors into the office for four days a week December 8, 2022 Travers Smith has become the latest City law firm to call lawyers back into the office after telling staff to spend 60 per cent of their time at work. The law firm’s new “agile working” policy calls on Travers Smith’s lawyers to come into the office for six days across every two working weeks. [...]