Financial news

• Barclays hit with $15m fine over attempts to unmask whistleblower

  18-12-2018 20:25
  Regulator accuses senior management of failing to follow whistleblowing policiesBarclays has been slapped with a $15m (£12m) fine by a New York regulator over attempts by chief executive Jes Staley and senior management to unmask a whistleblower.The New York state department of financial services said its investigation found “shortcomings in governance, controls and corporate culture relating to Barclays’ whistleblowing function”. Continue reading...
  
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• Trump has a point about interest rates, but his method is foolhardy | Nils Pratley

  18-12-2018 20:12
  Sniping at his own choice for the Federal Reserve is bad for the president and the central bankAnother day, another tweet from Donald Trump telling the US Federal Reserve how to do its job. “I hope the people over at the Fed will read today’s Wall Street Journal editorial before they make yet another mistake,” he wrote on the eve of a high-profile decision on interest rates.He then advised the supposedly independent central bank to “feel the market, don’t just go by
  
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• Trump heaps pressure on Federal Reserve over interest rate rise

  18-12-2018 19:36
  After heavy market losses, Wall Street faces its bleakest Christmas since the 1930sWhy are markets falling, and are we heading for global recession?Donald Trump has stepped up his pressure on America’s central bank to shelve plans for an expected increase in interest rates to prevent the bleakest December for Wall Street since the US was in the throes of the Great Depression.After days of heavy stock market falls, Trump tweeted before New York trading opened on Tuesday to warn the Federal
  
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• Global pay gap will take 202 years to close, says World Economic Forum

  18-12-2018 19:11
  Gender equality has stalled, says WEF, as women globally are paid 63% of what men getThe global pay gap between men and women will take 202 years to close, because it is so vast and the pace of change so slow, according to the World Economic Forum.The WEF, which organises the annual meeting of business and political leaders in Davos, said the global gender pay gap has narrowed slightly over the past year, but the number of women in the professional workplace has fallen. In 2017, the WEF estimate
  
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• Growth fears drive FTSE 100 to lowest close in over two years - business live

  18-12-2018 18:22
  Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as UK blue-chip index stocks suffer their worst December in decadesLatest: FTSE 100 slides againOil has hit a 15-month lowMore fund managers expect global growth to weaken
  IFO survey shows German confidence downInvestors worried about global economy, and Fed rate hikes
  Asia-Pacific stocks drop as Xi disappoints5.22pm GMT The US stock market is clinging onto its gains, with the S&P 500 still up almost 1% today.Oil, though, continues
  
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• Christmas shoppers warned to avoid plastic toys due to toxin levels

  18-12-2018 16:49 via theguardian.com
  Toys feature in more than half of EU alerts for products containing banned chemicals Christmas shoppers are being warned to avoid plastic toys after they appeared in more than half of EU intergovernmental alerts for products containing banned chemicals this year.In all, 290 of the 563 warnings sent out on the EU’s rapid alert system concerned toys with illegally high levels of toxins, most of which were plastic dolls, and all of which could be on sale on British high streets. Continue read
  
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• UK banks will have to publish 'living wills' to ensure 'orderly failure'

  18-12-2018 15:32
  Bank of England moves to prevent repeat of lenders going bust during financial crisisBritain’s largest lenders will have to publicly disclose whether they can afford to foot the bill for their own failures and wind down in an “orderly” way, as part of the Bank of England’s latest efforts to avoid a repeat of crisis-era bailouts.The public assessments of so-called “living wills” are part of the central bank’s efforts to ensure lenders can fail safely, wit
  
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• Excessive bank fees for unarranged overdrafts to be banned

  18-12-2018 15:23
  FCA says banks make £2.4bn a year from overdrafts and market is ‘dysfunctional’Banks are to be banned from charging excessive fees for unauthorised overdrafts, paid by 14 million people every year, after the City watchdog found that the current system of fees needed “fundamental change”.The current range of fees and daily and monthly charges will be swept away and replaced by a simple, single interest rate, under proposals from the Financial Conduct Authority, which
  
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• Carmakers criticise 'unrealistic' EU plan to slash vehicle emissions

  18-12-2018 15:19
  Anger over intended 37.5% cut for new cars but environmental groups say it is not enoughAn EU agreement to cut emissions from cars by over a third by 2030 has faced opposition from Europe’s car industry for being “unrealistic”, as well as criticism from environmental groups for being insufficient to achieve climate change targets.EU countries will aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 37.5% by 2030 compared with 2021, while emissions from new vans will have to
  
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• Solar households expected to give away power to energy firms

  18-12-2018 14:51
  Government confirms anyone who adds solar from April 2019 will not be paid for excess electricity exported to gridThe government has said households that install solar panels in the future will be expected to give away unused clean power for free to energy firms earning multimillion-pound profits, provoking outrage from green campaigners.The mayor of London, big energy firms and environmentalists had urged ministers not to end the “export tariff” for solar panels under the feed-in ta
  
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• John Lewis sales rebound as it cuts clothing prices

  18-12-2018 14:09
  Chain bucks retail gloom after profit warnings at Asos, Bonmarché and SuperdryJohn Lewis has bucked the trend for gloomy retail trading updates, reporting a sales rebound last week after discounted clothing lured shoppers back into stores.The department store group, which is owned by staff, said fashion and beauty sales rose 9.3% in the week to 15 December compared with the same period last year. Continue reading...
  
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• Almost 700,000 UK homes stuck with slow broadband

  18-12-2018 12:09
  Despite better coverage, 2% of customers are unable to use Netflix or YouTube, says Ofcom Almost 700,000 “forgotten homes” across the UK are unable to get sufficiently fast broadband to meet a typical family’s needs, such as watching Netflix, downloading films and browsing YouTube.Ofcom, the communications regulator, said 2% of UK homes and offices, about 677,000 properties, could not access broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps. Continue reading...
  
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• Energy shakeup could cut bills by £45 a year

  18-12-2018 10:47
  Ofgem says consumers should pay less towards networks such as National GridThe energy regulator has provided some relief from rising energy costs by announcing measures that will reduce bills by about £45 a year from 2021.Ofgem said it would “drive a hard bargain” with companies that run the wires and pipes that supply the UK’s electricity and gas, halving the level of returns they can make. Continue reading...
  
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• I was barred from a restaurant – and now I can’t use my voucher

  18-12-2018 08:00
  I’d asked for our favourite seats, but when we arrived other diners were sitting thereI have been going to an expensive French restaurant in central London for years. I always ask for a favourite window seat and, prior to our last visit, popped in an hour before to confirm. When we arrived other diners were sitting there. We politely asked for the table and, after a rather awkward discussion, the diners were moved. We later spoke to the owner to complain, and thought no more about it &ndas
  
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• House prices will stagnate in 2019 as sales fall, Rics says

  18-12-2018 01:01
  Surveyors body expects Brexit and affordability constraints to take toll on property marketHouse prices will stagnate in 2019 and the number of sales fall as a mixture of Brexit and affordability constraints takes its toll on the property market, according to Britain’s surveyors and valuers.The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said it expected the number of house sales to fall back by 5% to around 1.15m compared with 2018. The number of sales will remain sharply below the 1.
  
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• Big four accounting groups escape breakup threat from CMA

  18-12-2018 01:01
  Financial Reporting Council proposes changes to give smaller groups access to the largest clients, but avoids ‘nuclear option’ of a breakupThe big four accounting groups, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and EY, have escaped the threat of a breakup after the competition regulator stopped short of calling for radical action against them.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) proposed instead that audits of the UK’s biggest companies, listed on the FTSE 350, should be carried out by at l
  
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• Half of online shoppers suffer Christmas delivery problems

  18-12-2018 00:20
  Consumer group finds more than half of people who bought online experienced errors last year
  More than half of people who shopped online over last year’s Christmas period had a problem with deliveries, according to research by Which?, the consumer group.Some complained their parcels had been left in the bin (7%), were thrown over a fence (4%) or vanished after being left with a neighbour (2%). Continue reading...
  
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