Legal sector feeling subdued as regulator loses its AML powers October 23, 2025 The Treasury’s decision to transfer oversight of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing supervision to the FCA has sparked concerns within the professional services sector. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) served as a Professional Body Supervisor (PBS) for AMLCT for law firms across England and Wales, while for the accountancy sector, the HMRC plays the supervision [...]
PayPal-backed UK fintech kicks off legal battle over unpaid fees October 22, 2025 A PayPal-backed UK fintech which provides services to the HMRC is locked in a legal battle with a former client over an accusation of unpaid pre-determined charges. Embedded payments firm Modulr has filed a winding up petition against Paymob Technology, which trades under the moniker Dapio. A Judge will hear the case on Wednesday October [...]
FCA to take control of anti-money laundering supervision of professional service firms in major reform October 21, 2025 The government’s reform of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing supervision will significantly change and diminish the roles of the legal regulator and HMRC. Today, the Treasury revealed the outcome of its consultation on reforming anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing supervision, primarily for professional services, by creating a Single Professional Services Supervisor (SPSS), with the Financial [...]
Reeves ‘flying blind’ on non-doms as ultra-rich couple move to Milan October 21, 2025 Rachel Reeves will go into next month’s budget “flying blind” over the number of non-doms that have left the UK, a new report has warned on the day that a high-profile couple relocated to Milan in response to the Chancellor’s crackdown last autumn. The study, which was compiled by former Treasury economist Chris Walker, found [...]
Bodycare: Creditors to lose millions after retailer’s collapse October 21, 2025 Bodycare owed more than £30m when it collapsed into administration with the loss of around 1,400 jobs, it has been revealed. The high street health and beauty retailer fell over in September with an initial 32 stores closed and around 450 employees being made redundant. That move was followed a few days later when it [...]
The top one per cent account for a third of tax revenue October 21, 2025 The top one per cent of taxpayers account for around a third of all income tax and capital gains tax paid in 2023-24, it has been revealed. According to HMRC, the top 500,000 taxpayers contributed £93.8bn last year, which represented 33 per cent of the total raised. The top 100,000 paid £54.9bn and covered a [...]
UK needs a minister for drones to prepare for modern warfare October 21, 2025 As autonomous warfare spending edges towards a quarter of the MoD’s budget, it makes sense to appoint a dedicated minister for drones.
Property taxes send UK to ‘second-bottom’ of global rankings October 20, 2025 The UK is second-bottom of global competitiveness rankings for property taxes, fresh analysis has shown, undermining Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ ambition to “back the builders, not the blockers”. The Tax Foundation’s International Tax Competitiveness Index placed the UK at 32nd out of 38 in a damning indictment of HMRC’s complicated rules and a higher burden preventing [...]
AWS outage: Amazon says recovery is underway October 20, 2025 A swathe of apps and online services went down on Monday morning, including Zoom, Slack and Coinbase. This follows a global Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage, with knock on effects hitting millions of users of thousands of apps and websites. Amazon has said that services are “seeing significant signs of recovery”, with Lloyds Bank saying [...]
Rachel Reeves’ growth policies scored by City AM October 20, 2025 As Rachel Reeves does her maths ahead of the 26 November Budget, she will hope that Labour’s policies have delivered enough growth to limit the number of tax hikes needed to restore her £9.9bn fiscal headroom. The fiscal black hole facing the Treasury could be between £20bn and £30bn due to higher borrowing costs, productivity [...]