Exclusive: City investors know regulation is on the horizon for buy now pay later firms October 19, 2021 The Buy Now Pay Later sector (BNPL) has seen a surge of activity since the start of the pandemic as consumers turned to online shopping and welcomed the option to purchase trending items of clothing, beauty products and other goods without parting with all of their cash up-front. More and more BNPL options, including Klarna [...]
Covid cancellations: CMA launches probe into Teletext over package holidays October 18, 2021 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it has launched court action against Teletext Holidays over inadequate progress on refunding package holidays for trips cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: “Companies must abide by consumer protection law and treat their customers fairly. “After engaging with Teletext Holidays extensively, we [...]
Asda deal to sell petrol forecourts to EG Group terminated October 18, 2021 The Issa brothers have decided to terminate EG Group’s acquisition of Asda’s petrol forecourt business. In an update on Monday, Asda said the termination came after the supermarket and the Issa brothers’ EG were allowed to share commercial information with one another. They had been previously restricted under UK competitive law but a ‘hold separate’ [...]
Government ordered to reveal firms in £12bn PPE bonanza ‘VIP lane’ October 18, 2021 The government has been ordered to reveal the list of 47 companies which were awarded hefty PPE contracts via the ‘high-priority lane’ at the beginning of the pandemic last year. The contracts cost the government some £12.5bn, despite a number of reports that some of the PPE acquired was ‘unusable’. The Information Commissioner has told [...]
Crackdowns on tech mergers will only serve to deter British entrepreneurs October 18, 2021 What if Facebook had never bought Instagram? This question keeps competition regulators like the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) up at night. In 2012, Instagram had just 30m users, 13 employees, and made no money. The $1bn valuation was mocked and appeared to many to be the sign of a tech bubble ready to burst. [...]
FCA chairman Charles Randell to leave post after over three years in the job October 15, 2021 The chairman of the City watchdog is stepping down from his post next year after over three years heading up the regulator. Charles Randell has asked chancellor Rishi Sunak to start looking for his replacement as chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Randell intends to leave his post in the spring of next year. [...]
Exclusive: UK set to keep EU cap on bankers’ bonuses post-Brexit October 14, 2021 The UK is set to keep the EU’s cap on bankers’ bonuses, with the Treasury instead focussed on a range of other measures to shake up financial services regulation post-Brexit. Treasury sources say the measure is not even being discussed by chancellor Rishi Sunak and that it will not be scrapped any time soon. The [...]
Audit reform: FRC asks for power to cap Big Four’s audit clients October 12, 2021 The chief executive of the UK’s accounting watchdog has asked ministers for the authority to enforce a cap on the number of large companies that any one accountancy firm can audit, in an attempt to break up the dominance of the Big Four firms. Sir Jon Thompson went on to question the likelihood of the [...]
On a charge or out of juice – can EV charging infrastructure keep up with demand? October 11, 2021 One of the most notable trends of the past 18 months has been soaring demand for electric vehicles (EVs). This is particularly the case in Europe, where the share of EVs as a percentage of overall car registrations has grown to almost 10% (chart 1). Other geographies are also now showing renewed signs of strength, [...]
Is bling out? What Chinese “common prosperity” means for luxury goods October 8, 2021 Evergrande Group will not have helped to calm the nerves of investors in European luxury goods companies. They’ve viewed recent developments in China with some trepidation. The difficulties facing the country’s second largest property developer (by sales) add to a checklist of concerns. These concerns include a slowdown in economic activity (for background, see: China: what [...]