Credit Suisse back on track as second quarter profit soars July 31, 2019 Credit Suisse today said it is on track to meet its full-year targets after posting its strongest quarterly results in four years. The bank reported pre-tax profit of 1.3bn Swiss francs (£1.1bn) in the second quarter, up 24 per cent on the previous year. Net profit attributed to shareholders soared 45 per cent to 937m [...]
UK house sales plummet in June, held back by Brexit ‘ball and chain’ July 23, 2019 House sales crashed 16.5 per cent in June, as the property market took a “wait-and-see” attitude to transactions amid Brexit uncertainty. Monthly HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures showed British residential property sales fell to 84,490, more than one-sixth down on the same period last year. Read more: London house prices suffer worst plunge in [...]
MPs call for audit watchdog to reform after endorsing new chair Simon Dingemans July 22, 2019 An influential committee of MPs has called for radical reforms from Britain’s accountancy watchdog after endorsing the appointment of its proposed new chair. Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (Beis) has given its approval for Simon Dingemans to take over as chair of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), but has urged the group to [...]
Number of employees enjoying job perks falls to 12-year low July 22, 2019 Corporate cost cutting has pushed the number of people receiving major job perks to a 12-year low, according to research. The number of employees who receive taxable job perks such as company cars, private medical insurance and staff accommodation fell 3.6m last year. Read more: Google UK employees earned £226,000 on average last year The [...]
Judge dismisses Credit Suisse claims in £239m banking bonus row July 19, 2019 A UK court has dismissed an attempt from Credit Suisse to recoup £239m that it paid as a one-off tax on bonuses, closing the curtains on a decade-long tussle that was sparked by the financial crisis. Read more: Dixons Carphone executives delay bonuses The Swiss multinational bank has lost a legal battle with HMRC over [...]
Uber rival Kapten partners with Citymapper on London travel July 17, 2019 Citymapper has teamed up with rival Kapten to offer a £10 credit to some of its users. Users of Citymappers’ pass, which was launched in March, will receive a free £10 weekly credit for rides via Kapten, the only private hire firm to have teamed up with the transport app. Read more: French ride-hailing app [...]
Massive airport email scam blocked by UK spooks July 16, 2019 An attempt to scam hundreds of thousands of people using a spoof UK airport email address was one of a string of major cyberattacks prevented by spooks last year. Criminals sent more than 200,000 emails impersonating an airport from a fake gov.uk address last August in a bid to defraud people, but the messages were [...]
Why don’t banks care about SMEs? July 9, 2019 For a service sector dealing almost solely with numbers and structured data, the world of small business lending could not be better suited to disruption by digital machines. But recently, Bank of England governor Mark Carney rightly pointed out that, despite small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) facing a £22bn funding gap, almost half don’t [...]
Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra could run into tax trouble say lawyers July 1, 2019 Facebook’s new cryptocurrency Libra could face serious tax issues that could hamper its widespread takeup, according to City lawyers. Earlier this month, the social media giant confirmed plans to launch Libra which is intended to be a new global currency that can improve access to the financial system. Tax lawyers from Magic Circle law firm [...]
Fraudsters target children as young as 11 to launder money June 18, 2019 Identity fraud reached record highs last year and criminals targeted children as young as 11 to launder money. Criminals targeted younger people and pensioners, the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas revealed in its annual report. The figures showed more than 189,000 fraud cases were reported last year with plastic card fraud proving the most common. [...]