Covid loan crisis as taxpayers foot £4.4bn bill to cover losses with more still owed in arrears or defaults February 8, 2023 The cost of Covid-era loan losses to the taxpayer could total £11bn, according to figures released by the British Business Bank British banks have already been paid £4.4bn to cover losses including fraud with more in arrears or default. Of the £77bn issued across three different loan schemes, according to figures published , £4.4bn has [...]
Clawback: How Barclays is chasing down Covid-19 business loan cash January 10, 2023 Barclays has teamed up with a specialist insolvency practitioner to recover money loaned to small businesses through the UK’s Covid support schemes. The British bank has joined forces with insolvency firm Manolete Partners to recover emergency loans paid through the UK government backed Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), the Financial Times first reported. The UK’s [...]
Starling boss Boden marks quadrupling of bank’s profits with barbs at fintech peers January 6, 2023 Digital bank Starling said it expects to more than quadruple its profits to £120m and ramp up a hiring spree this year as it becomes the latest lender to be buoyed by rising interest rates and a surge in borrowing.
Data on firms that took UK Covid loans to remain secret, tribunal rules January 5, 2023 Information on thousands of small businesses that received taxpayer-backed loans during Covid-19 will remain confidential, a tribunal has ruled. The decision to keep the names of companies that took support during Covid a secret comes after a tribunal blocked an anti-corruption campaign group’s bid to obtain the data through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. [...]
Ex-minister says Kwarteng was right to sack Treasury’s top civil servant September 13, 2022 Kwasi Kwarteng was right to sack the Treasury’s top civil servant and his exit was a “cause for celebration”, according to a former Treasury minister. Former fraud minister Lord Theodore Agnew said the sacked Treasury permanent secretary Tom Scholar was the embodiment of “the malign influence of the Treasury orthodoxy”. Kwarteng has immediately tried to [...]
Organised crime gangs defrauded £367m from Covid support schemes August 22, 2022 Almost £400m was stolen from the UK government’s Covid support schemes by organised crime gangs, according to new figures released by Whitehall. Figures released by HM Revenue and Customs, after a Freedom of Information request by law firm Pinsent Masons, showed £367m was stolen from initiatives like the furlough scheme and Eat to Help Out. [...]
UK’s Insolvency Service uses new powers to crack down on Covid loan fraud July 25, 2022 The UK’s Insolvency Service has begun using new powers, given to it last December, to crack down on company directors that dissolve their firms to avoid making repayments on government backed loans. The Insolvency Service used its “tough new powers” to ban three individuals from acting as company directors, for dissolving their companies to avoid [...]
Starling Bank hits first full year profits at £32m July 21, 2022 Starling Bank revealed it has hit its first full year profits today as the digital lender swings into the black from a £30m loss last year.
UK banks ramp up lending after Covid-19 support cliff edge July 18, 2022 UK banks are ramping up lending, marking the end of a loan drought after government Covid-19 support schemes were ditched. The total value of lending to UK businesses climbed £12bn to £533bn in the nine months to May, according to research based on Bank of England data published today by debt advisor ACP Altenburg Advisory. [...]
Rees-Mogg: Treasury ‘hasn’t been serious’ about Covid fraud July 12, 2022 Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has today said the Treasury “hasn’t been serious” about Covid fraud amid recent figures showing that more than £10bn was lost to scammers. In a further attack on Tory leadership frontrunner Rishi Sunak, Rees-Mogg said on his podcast that the ex-chancellor’s economic policies and “the approach of the Treasury as an [...]