NS&I lifts rates on savings to meet Treasury’s fundraising target December 21, 2021 National Savings & Investments, the government-backed savings bank, today announced it will push up interest rates on some of its savings accounts at the end of the month, as it scrambles to meet the government-set net financing target for its financial year. As of 29 December, the interest rate on NS&I’s Direct ISA, Direct Saver [...]
UBS appeals against French court’s money laundering ruling December 20, 2021 UBS has filed an appeal against the decision by France’s Supreme Court last week to uphold the Swiss bank’s conviction for money laundering. It comes just a week after a Paris appeals court slashed the bank’s fine for allegedly helping wealthy customers in France evade taxes to £1.5bn – down from an original penalty of [...]
MP calls for national security review of Viasat’s £5.4bn Inmarsat acquisition December 20, 2021 A top Tory MP has written to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng calling for a national security review of Inmarsat’s £5.4bn takeover by US rival Viasat, on the basis that it will “diminish the UK’s sovereign capabilities” in the space sector. Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, has written to Kwarteng expressing [...]
Activist investor Bramson muscles in on Navient after Barclays defeat December 20, 2021 Sherborne Investors, the fund led by activist investor Edward Bramson, has muscled in on Navient and built a stake of around 16 per cent in the US-based student loan management company, it said today. Seven months after the fund admitted defeat in its three-year campaign on Barclays, in which it pressured the lender to oust [...]
Credit Suisse executive with links to Greensill steps down after 30 years December 20, 2021 Eric Varvel, the Credit Suisse executive who previously ran the bank’s $500bn asset management unit with ties to Greensill, is stepping down after three decades at the Swiss group. Varvel, who was most recently chair of Credit Suisse’s investment bank and head of its US holding company, had contemplated leaving the bank partly due to [...]
Italy’s luxury brand Zegna to debut on Wall Street after $3bn SPAC deal December 20, 2021 Italian luxury company Zegna will go public in New York today after completing a merger with a US special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in a deal with an expected enterprise value of $3.1bn. “Today marks a monumental milestone for Zegna and is the beginning of an exciting and pivotal new chapter in our 111-year legacy,” [...]
City of London calls on Rishi Sunak to support businesses in the Covid-emptied Square Mile December 17, 2021 The City of London’s local authority has called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to provide “much needed” financial support for shops, restaurants and pubs in the Square Mile after the government reintroduced its ‘work from home’ advice. In a letter to the Chancellor, The City of London Corporation policy chair Catherine McGuiness warned that small businesses [...]
HSBC fined £64m for eight years of anti-money laundering failures December 17, 2021 Britain’s financial watchdog has fined HSBC Bank £63.9m for failings in its anti-money laundering processes in the eight-year period between 2010 and 2018, it said this morning. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had identified “serious weaknesses” in three key parts of the automated processes that the banking giant uses to monitor hundreds of [...]
Asian food-focused delivery startup HungryPanda raises $130m December 17, 2021 London-headquartered HungryPanda, a food delivery startup that caters for Asian restaurants and populations overseas, has today announced it’s closed a $130m Series D funding round – just over a year after its $70m Series C. Its latest round was led by the family-backed private equity and growth investor Perwyn, alongside investors Kinnevik, Felix Capital, 83North, [...]
UK bricks and mortar sales have stronger-than-expected November, but Omicron threatens festive figures December 17, 2021 Black Friday deals on toys, clothes and tech pushed UK retail sales up by a better-than-expected 1.4 per cent in November, as shoppers hit the high street for their early Christmas shopping, the Office for National Statistics said today. Last month’s UK retail sales figures were 4.7 per cent higher than a year earlier, the [...]