FCA says 12 million people in UK will struggle to pay bills October 22, 2020 Some 12 million people in Britain are likely to struggle with bills or loan repayments amid the continued economic disruption triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said. A survey by the watchdog found that 12 million people in the UK had low financial resilience, and that two million of those people [...]
HSBC ‘to cut 300 jobs’ in overhaul of UK commercial banking October 21, 2020 HSBC has reportedly launched a restructuring of its commercial banking business in the UK that will lead to around 300 job cuts. The cuts are part of a wider strategy overhaul announced by the banking giant earlier this year as it seeks to slash costs and reinvigorate its business in the face of global economic [...]
UK to increase sentence for market abuse in post-Brexit financial regulation October 21, 2020 The UK is planning to increase the maximum prison sentence for market abuse from seven to 10 years, as the government sets out a roadmap for financial regulation after the end of the Brexit transition period. The government is also proposing introducing “more proportionate” regulation of investment firms and giving the City watchdog greater powers [...]
MPs demand update on audit reform progress from business secretary October 21, 2020 An influential committee of MPs has written to business secretary Alok Sharma to demand an update on the government’s progress implementing audit reforms following a series of high-profile accounting scandals. In a letter dated yesterday, Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee chair Darren Jones asked Sharma to outline which reforms recommended by two recent [...]
Women make up over half of new partners at UK law firms for first time October 21, 2020 The proportion of women becoming partners at British law firms has topped 50 per cent for the first time, according to an influential ranking of the UK’s legal industry. Almost 52 per cent of newly-ranked lawyers attaining partner level over the past year were female, according to legal ranking firm Chambers’ annual report on the [...]
Government scraps three-year spending review amid Covid-19 chaos October 21, 2020 The Treasury today confirmed that a comprehensive three-year review of government spending had been ditched in favour of a one-year review because of the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “While the government would have liked to outline plans for the rest of this parliament, the right thing today is to focus entirely on [...]
Accounting watchdog floats strengthening auditors’ obligation to spot fraud October 21, 2020 The UK’s accounting regulator has proposed increasing the requirements on auditors to detect fraud in company accounts following a spate of high-profile accounting scandals. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched a review into the international accounting standard outlining auditors’ responsibilities to identify fraud. The watchdog is proposing revisions to the standard to provide “increased [...]
UK investors most downbeat in world on own economy October 21, 2020 UK investors are more downbeat about the short-term prospects for their own economy than their global peers, according to new research. Some 43 per cent of UK investors surveyed by UBS in the third quarter said they were optimistic about their own region’s economy over the next 12 months. While the figure represents a three [...]
Bank of England and US regulators renew deal on clearing cooperation October 20, 2020 The Bank of England and US trading watchdog have signed a new agreement to cooperate on the supervision of cross-border clearing of financial transactions. “The CFTC and the BoE express their willingness to cooperate in the interest of fulfilling their respective regulatory mandates, particularly in preserving the benefits of cross-border clearing activity,” the Bank said. [...]
Technical glitches not caused by cyberattack, says Euronext October 20, 2020 A major outage that froze trading in several European cities yesterday and a later glitch that meant markets failed to close was not caused by a cyberattack, exchange operator Euronext said. The two trading glitches were caused by a technical failure that hit one of Euronext’s systems “in charge of managing persistence of data”, a [...]
