Financial news

• UK financial watchdog head rebukes criticism over Saudi Aramco meeting - Financial Times

  17-10-2017 21:12
  UK financial watchdog head rebukes criticism over Saudi Aramco meeting
  Financial Times
  The head of the UK's financial watchdog has rebuffed criticism that it met with Saudi Aramco before proposing changes to listing rules ahead of the oil giant's mooted initial public offering, arguing the plans offer “integrity”. Andrew Bailey, the ...en meer »
  
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• Sainsbury's to cut 2,000 jobs across UK

  17-10-2017 20:55 via theguardian.com
  Store and back office roles axed to save £500m to counter impact of price war with discounters Aldi and LidlSainsbury’s is axing 2,000 store and back office roles as the supermarket chain looks to slash costs by £500m amid an intensifying price war with Aldi and Lidl.The retailer is restructuring its HR departments, getting rid of 1,400 store-based clerks and another 600 staff based in the back offices that serve the chain as well as Argos and Sainsbury’s bank. Continue r
  
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• Airbus's ingenious Bombardier plan is comeuppance for Boeing

  17-10-2017 20:44 via theguardian.com
  After Boeing tried to kill Bombardier’s C-Series plane in its infancy, Airbus’s actions secure it a sizeable stake and Bombardier wins a powerful allyComeuppance for a corporate bully rarely arrives so swiftly or so elegantly. Boeing attempted to kill Bombardier’s C-Series plane in its infancy by getting US trade authorities to impose stiff import tariffs. Now those heavy-handed legal tactics have produced an outcome that could be damaging in the long-term for Boeing. Arch-riva
  
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• Top of the rocks: world’s most expensive handbag goes on sale

  17-10-2017 20:08 via theguardian.com
  Bling-encrusted Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond Purse, which took more than 8,800 hours to create, heads to auctionA diamond-encrusted handbag billed as the most expensive in the world has been put up for sale.Officially known as the Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond Purse, the one-off accessory holds the Guinness World Record for being the most valuable handbag ever produced, with an original price of $3.8m in 2010. Continue reading...
  
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• Ofgem warns energy firms to drop worst tariffs or face targets

  17-10-2017 19:44
  Watchdog says besides price caps it can force companies to offer cheaper deals to customers on standard variable ratesBig energy companies face a regulatory crackdown after the industry watchdog threatened to impose targets forcing suppliers to shift millions of customers off the market’s worst-value tariffs. Dermot Nolan, the Ofgem chief executive, said companies had failed to act quickly enough and should move faster to take customers off the standard variable tariffs which about two-thi
  
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• The big money question: would you quit work for £1m?

  17-10-2017 19:14
  Nearly half of us would retire for a million in cash, a poll has discovered. We asked members of the public to name their price According to a poll, 45% of working Brits would retire immediately in return for the lump sum of £1m or less. For £2m, more than half (53%) of the public could be persuaded to put their feet up for good, while £10m would see two-thirds (66%) quit their day job on the spot. However, 12% of employed Brits said that no amount of money could convince them
  
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• Inflation is back. And this time the effects could be much worse | Patrick Collinson

  17-10-2017 19:02 via theguardian.com
  Consumer prices are at a five-year high – and rising. If you’re young, you may be OK. For the rest of us, it could be a nightmareIn 1972 my father bought a home on the south coast of England for the shockingly high price of £11,500. His mortgage was £8,000, or a little under three times his salary. Within a few years, galloping inflation had sparked the near collapse of the British economy, a run on sterling, and an IMF bailout. Yet by 1980 the ravages of runaway 1970s pr
  
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• UK Treasury rejects OECD's call for second Brexit referendum

  17-10-2017 18:51 via theguardian.com
  Thinktank warns Britain must stay close to EU or face long-term decline as it suggests a second poll The Treasury has flatly rejected calls for a second EU referendum after the west’s leading economic thinktank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, said reversing the decision to leave would significantly benefit the economy.“We are leaving the EU and there will not be a second referendum,” the Treasury said in a terse statement that reflected the governmen
  
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• Bank of England's Mark Carney says inflation hasn't peaked yet after hitting 3% today - as it happened

  17-10-2017 18:30 via theguardian.com
  Dow tops 23,000 for the first timeMark Carney says inflation hasn’t peaked yetCarney: EU banks aren’t ready for hard BrexitInflation has hit 3.0%, a five-year high
  Weak pound since Brexit vote is pushing prices upRising inflation eats into workers’ wagesState pension likely to rise by 3% 5.30pm BSTA down day for equities, with European markets mostly finishing lower. After edging towards another closing high, the FTSE 100 finally ended in the red despite a dip in the pound. Ste
  
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• ‘Sometimes you don’t feel human’ – how the gig economy chews up and spits out millennials

  17-10-2017 18:08 via theguardian.com
  Young people aren’t just enthusiastic users of Uber, Deliveroo and TaskRabbit – they are often working for them. But while promising flexibility, these jobs are precarious and low-paid. Is this the new model for the working poor?Doug Robertson took an UberLux to his wedding. This is the ride-hailing app’s top-tier service – vehicles include Rolls-Royces, Mercedes and Bentley Flying Spurs. The driver made Robertson and his partner feel special, delivered them early and let
  
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• Richard Branson reveals conmen targeted him twice

  17-10-2017 18:04 via theguardian.com
  Virgin boss was asked by impersonator of defence secretary Michael Fallon to contribute $5m to rescue a kidnapped British diplomatSir Richard Branson has revealed he was the target of two elaborate confidence tricks – one involving someone posing as the defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, in a phone call – that saw a “very successful” business associate swindled out of $2m (£1.5m).
  “This story sounds like it has come straight out of a John le Carré b
  
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• House prices rise 5% a year in more bad news for would-be buyers

  17-10-2017 12:40
  Figure is twice that of pay settlements across the country and comes amid a rise in inflationThe rate of house price growth increased to 5% in August, according to official government figures, pushing homes further out of the reach of aspiring young buyers already squeezed by rising inflation.The average UK house price rose by £1,000 in August to reach £226,000, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The increase took the annualised rate of house price inflation to 5%, up fro
  
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• UK interest rate rise likely as inflation hits 3%

  17-10-2017 11:26
  Speculation rife Bank of England may hike interest rate for the first time in a decade as governor Mark Carney predicts prices to rise further The prospect of Britain’s first interest rate increase in more than a decade loomed large on Tuesday after inflation hit its highest level since 2012 and Bank of England governor Mark Carney said it had further to rise.Financial markets are now betting strongly on Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee reversing the quarter-point cut
  
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• Virgin Media is chasing me over a bill for a phone I don’t even have

  17-10-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I’ve never owned a mobile but Virgin began taking direct debits from my bank account and then sent debt collectors aroundCan you please help me to get Virgin Media to call off the debt collectors for a mobile phone contract that is nothing to do with me?I have never owned a mobile, but in June I noticed the company had taken two £13 payments by direct debit. I contacted the bank to cancel the direct debit, and staff confirmed that I had been refunded the money. They advised me that i
  
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• Virgin Media is chasing me for over outstanding bill for a phone I never owned

  17-10-2017 08:00
  I’ve never owned a mobile but Virgin began taking direct debits from my bank account and then sent debt collectors aroundCan you please help me to get Virgin Media to call off the debt collectors for a mobile phone contract that is nothing to do with me?I have never owned a mobile, but in June I noticed the company had taken two £13 payments by direct debit. I contacted the bank to cancel the direct debit, and staff confirmed that I had been refunded the money. They advised me that i
  
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• It's a folly to dismiss City warnings over Brexit transition deal delay | Nils Pratley

  17-10-2017 07:20 via theguardian.com
  It is no longer possible to dismiss gloomy predictions, as some Brexiters do, as a flight of fancy – there is a real shift on the groundTheCityUK is a lobbying group whose dire warnings about the potential loss of trade and jobs from the City of London tend to infuriate true believers in Brexit. Too gloomy, say hardcore Brexiters. A few jobs may go, runs their argument, but Frankfurt, Paris, Luxembourg and Dublin are too small to inflict lasting damage on London. Besides, the rest of the E
  
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• Who’s to blame for Brexit’s fantasy politics? The experts, of course | Aditya Chakrabortty

  17-10-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Magical thinking about the future is not confined to the cabinet. Just ask the Office for Budget ResponsibilityPolitics, runs the cliche, is the art of the possible. The compromise. The curbed expectation.Not any more. Not in the age of Brexit and Trump. In 2017, politics is the art of the impossible. Of writing blank cheques and scattering them to the wind. Of peddling fantasies and promising the voters they will be made flesh by tomorrow. Continue reading...
  
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• Mercedes-Benz recalls 400,000 cars in UK over airbag fault

  17-10-2017 02:01 via theguardian.com
  Company says vehicles are safe to drive but customers should contact roadside assistance service if airbag warning light comes onHundreds of thousands of Mercedes-Benz cars in the UK are being recalled over airbag concerns.
  Some 400,000 UK cars are being recalled as well as vehicles in “other markets”, the manufacturer said. The models affected include the A, B, C, and E-Class, and CLA, GLA, and GLC, built between November 2011 and July 2017. Continue reading...
  
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