Financial news

• World leaders hit back at Trump over 'totally unacceptable' tariffs – as it happened

  31-05-2018 22:19 via theguardian.com
  Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau says tariffs will harm industries and workers on both sides of the borderUS slaps allies with steel tariffs to spark trade war with EU, Canada and Mexico9.20pm BST And here’s what you need to know: Related: Trade war? What you need to know about US steel tariffs9.19pm BST Our full story on the day’s trade fears is here: Related: US on brink of trade war with EU, Canada and Mexico as tit-for-tat tariffs beginContinue reading...
  
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• Pre-paid funeral providers face stricter regulation

  31-05-2018 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Ministers to launch consultation in an attempt to stamp out bad practicePre-paid funeral plans could be hit with tougher regulation under government plans to deal with bad practice in the sector.The Guardian understands that the government is due to launch a consultation on regulating the funeral sector, where around 1.3 million people in the UK have a pre-paid plan. Continue reading...
  
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• US on brink of trade war with EU, Canada and Mexico as tit-for-tat tariffs begin

  31-05-2018 20:56 via theguardian.com
  Trump administration goes ahead with threatened tariffs on steel and aluminium as allies pledge to hit backTrump imposes tariffs – business liveThe United States and its traditional allies are on the brink of a full-scale trade war after European and Canadian leaders reacted swiftly and angrily to Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium producers. Related: Stock markets down as Trump imposes tariffs on allies – business liveContinue reading...
  
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• Asda profits fell by 10% in 2017

  31-05-2018 20:16 via theguardian.com
  Retailer blamed investment in price cuts as it fought back against Aldi and Lidl Asda, the supermarket chain being taken over by larger rival Sainsbury’s, has revealed a 10% slump in annual profits for 2017.The supermarket blamed price cuts and an overhaul of its own-brand products for the decline in pre-tax profits as its regrouped to fight back against the discounters Aldi and Lidl.Continue reading...
  
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• Treasury misses a trick with male Bank of England appointment

  31-05-2018 20:13 via theguardian.com
  Next chance to address 8-1 male bias on monetary committee may not arise for four yearsHow is the Bank of England’s “reflecting diversity, choosing inclusion” mission going? Let’s remind ourselves of the ambition as it applies to gender diversity: a tripling of the proportion of women in senior roles to 35% by 2020. Thursday was not a good day. From a shortlist comprising four women and one man, the man got the gig to be the next member of the high-profile monetary policy
  
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• Transport secretary may face grilling by MPs over rail chaos

  31-05-2018 19:28 via theguardian.com
  Chris Grayling accused of being ‘asleep at the wheel’, with MPs set to review handling of botched timetable changesThe transport secretary, Chris Grayling, could be called to face MPs over the botched timetable changes that have led to chaos across England’s rail network. As the mass cancellations of trains by Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) continued into an 11th day, Lilian Greenwood, the chair of the transport select committee, said she would ask the committee on
  
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• Carluccio’s could close 30-plus restaurants as restructure is approved

  31-05-2018 19:22 via theguardian.com
  Chain is latest casualty of casual dining crunch, which has hit Byron and Jamie’s ItalianLandlords of struggling Italian chain Carluccio’s have backed a restructuring plan that could result in the closure of more than 30 of its restaurants. On Thursday, 91% of the restaurant chain’s creditors voted in favour of a company voluntary agreement (CVA), an insolvency procedure that is currently being used by restauranteurs and retailers to shed loss-making sites. Continue reading...
  
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• Trade war? What you need to know about US steel tariffs

  31-05-2018 19:08 via theguardian.com
  The world’s closer to a full-scale trade war than at any time since the 1930s, with the US, China and the EU all involved Trump imposes tariffs – live updatesA key theme of Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016 was that American jobs were being lost as a result of unfair global trade. Most commentators thought it was bluster when Trump threatened to impose swingeing tariffs on Chinese goods and to pull the US out of trade deals. Continue reading...
  
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• Carillion collapse has left our school in a sorry state | Letter from headteacher Rachel Hornsey

  31-05-2018 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Headteacher Rachel Hornsey on a ‘shocking waste of taxpayers’ money’ and the chaos after work stalled at her schoolI have been following coverage of the Carillion crisis with interest, as I am the head of a primary school that has been left with a half-finished building project. Coverage has focused little on the realities of life after Carillion in situations like ours, and the human cost of outsourcing.Our overcrowded school was promised two new classrooms by September 2017.
  
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• Watchdog criticised over 'disappointing' action on high-cost credit

  31-05-2018 17:55 via theguardian.com
  FCA will require banks to alert customers but falls short of capping fees that affect 19 million customersThe City watchdog has ordered banks to do more to help the 19 million people who regularly use their overdrafts but has dismayed campaigners seeking a cap on the £2.3bn fees made when customers go into the red. The Financial Conduct Authority’s 18-month review into high-cost credit stepped back from a cap on overdraft fees because of fears it could be challenged in court by the b
  
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• Amazon accused of treating UK warehouse staff like robots

  31-05-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Ambulances called out 600 times in three years but online retailer denies GMB’s claims of unsafe working conditionsAmazon has been accused of treating staff like robots as it emerged that ambulances had been called out 600 times to the online retailer’s UK warehouses in the past three years.A Freedom of Information request to ambulance services from the GMB union revealed 115 call-outs to Amazon’s site in Rugeley, near Birmingham, including three relating to pregnancy or matern
  
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• Help-to-buy seems to have put a block on my flat purchase

  31-05-2018 15:49 via theguardian.com
  Developers decided to sell ‘over-priced’ properties to investors rather than individualsI decided to buy a one-bedroom flat in Grafton Quarter, a new development in Croydon. The asking price was £327,500. I secured funding from the help-to-buy scheme and paid the £500 reservation fee back in December. However, the mortgage valuation was £290,000, leaving a large shortfall, so I had to apply to a different lender hoping to get the right valuation. This I managed to d
  
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• Treasury chooses only man on shortlist of five for Bank of England job

  31-05-2018 15:27 via theguardian.com
  Anger as academic Jonathan Haskel is appointed to the monetary policy committeeThe Bank of England interest rate setting committee, which has only one woman among its nine members, will continue to be male-dominated after the Treasury opted to appoint the only man from a shortlist of five candidates.In a move that immediately sparked protests from women’s groups, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, said Jonathan Haskel, an Imperial College economist, would join the Bank’s governor, Mark
  
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• From lack of women in boardrooms to #MeToo, I’m bored with male excuses | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

  31-05-2018 14:30 via theguardian.com
  ‘Women don’t want the pressure’ is the business world’s version of: ‘Well, she was wearing a short skirt’The age of #MeToo has also become the age of the excuse. The two come together, naturally: “I didn’t know she was uncomfortable”; “she did come to my hotel room”; “that was the culture then”.We also saw it when the gender pay gap data came out, men (it is almost always men) in these companies first denied it existed
  
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• Why can't the UK cap overdraft fees? Some US states have a 7% limit

  31-05-2018 13:40 via theguardian.com
  The FCA’s new measures don’t go far enough to protect consumers from sky-high bank charges
  You check your account balance at a cash machine and what do you see? You have, say, £1,200 in your account – but “available funds” of £2,200. It’s one of the tricks used by banks to encourage us into using expensive overdrafts, and it works.The Financial Conduct Authority’s review of overdrafts on Thursday revealed that 19 million of us use our arrange
  
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• Rail firm Thameslink apologises for Poundland slight

  31-05-2018 12:29 via theguardian.com
  Tweet compared disrupted service to retailer’s chocolate, prompting legal threatOne of Britain’s largest train companies has apologised after Poundland threatened it with legal action for comparing the current problems with rail services to the budget retailer’s chocolate.Thameslink has faced criticism over disruption since the introduction of a new timetable on 20 May. On Wednesday it responded to a disgruntled passenger who had tweeted an image of a departures board showing c
  
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• Pensions Regulator chief steps down after lambasting by MPs

  31-05-2018 12:07 via theguardian.com
  Lesley Titcomb came under fire from two select committees for Carillion pension fund failuresThe chief executive of the Pensions Regulator(TPR), who has come in for criticism over her handling of successive crises at BHS and Carillion, has stepped down.Lesley Titcomb said she had taken the “difficult personal decision” to leave the regulator at the end of her four-year contract in February 2019. Continue reading...
  
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• Pound US dollar exchange rate: GBP up as consumer confidence improves

  31-05-2018 11:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE pound has risen by 0.4 per cent against the US dollar today, making £1 worth around $1.333. This is a recovery for the pound, which is still down from May’s best exchange rate of $1.376.
  
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• How can I get faster broadband in a rural area?

  31-05-2018 11:49
  Broadband is slow on June’s farm and BT wants £16,000 to install something faster. What are the options?We’re a rural family of six with three businesses on site and we have three landlines in order to be able to use broadband. It is a disaster – usually less than 1MB, peaks occasionally at 4MB – and sometimes the kids have to go to the village to do homework.Why isn’t BT forced to enable rural homes with the same deals that city people get? BT wanted to charg
  
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• Martin Sorrell fan club takes risks with S4 Capital venture | Nils Pratley

  31-05-2018 11:07 via theguardian.com
  The backers go for calculated gamble in signing away their normal voting rightsSir Martin Sorrell never seemed keen on giving other shareholders in WPP a say on anything, especially when his own pay was in the spotlight. Even so, his solution to the problem of co-owners having opinions is severe: Sorrell’s complete control of S4 Capital, his new quoted venture, will be cemented via his sole ownership of a “B” share with the power to silence all formal dissent. As the document d
  
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• FirstGroup dumps chief executive as firm reports £326m loss

  31-05-2018 10:47 via theguardian.com
  Aberdeen-based rail and coach group is ‘exploring options’ including sale of GreyhoundThe chief executive of FirstGroup, which runs buses in numerous UK cities and the Great Western, South Western and TransPennine rail franchises, has been ousted after the company slumped to a £326m loss.The troubled Aberdeen-based rail and coach operator, which has said it is exploring options including a sale of the US bus group Greyhound, also said it remained committed to the TransPennine c
  
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• UK financial watchdog calls for 'radical overhaul' of high-cost credit - Financial Times

  31-05-2018 09:40
  Financial Times
  UK financial watchdog calls for 'radical overhaul' of high-cost credit
  Financial Times
  The UK financial regulator called for a “radical” overhaul of rules surrounding bank overdrafts and rent-to-own businesses on Thursday, dismissing criticism that it was dragging its heels in its efforts to protect vulnerable customers. The Financial ...
  UK's financial watchdog launches crackdown on high-cost lending and overdraft ...The Independent
  UK financial watchdog to consider
  
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• UK house prices fall in May as pressure on household budgets grows

  31-05-2018 09:39 via theguardian.com
  Nationwide data shows 0.2% month-on-month decline as buyer slump continuesHouse prices fell in May as a faltering economy, pressure on household budgets and the prospect of interest rate rises dogged the market.Figures from Nationwide show prices declined by 0.2% month-on-month, the third fall in four months. On an annual basis, price growth slowed to 2.4% from 2.6% in April. Continue reading...
  
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• Industrial-scale beef production is a sign of crisis in Britain’s farming | Felicity Lawrence

  31-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Most farmers make a loss and rely on Brussels subsidies. Before it’s too late we must decide the kind of meat we want to eatPens of bare earth in serried rows, stretching across fields as barren as an urban car park, packed with cattle being intensively fed – this is the vision we have of the over-industrialised, disease-prone, polluting and crueller side of American feedlot beef production. However, as the Guardian revealed this week, this has become a feature of the British landsca
  
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• FTSE firms' excuses for lack of women in boardrooms 'pitiful and patronising'

  31-05-2018 01:16 via theguardian.com
  Leading companies criticised over reasons given for male dominance of boardroomsWomen aren’t a good fit in boardrooms, most of them don’t want the hassle of a big job and they don’t understand the complex issues discussed in board meetings. That is according to executives at the UK’s biggest firms, who have offered the excuses to explain why their boardrooms are dominated by men.The business minister Andrew Griffiths, responding to a report released by the his department
  
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