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More than £4m on average was stolen by fraudsters every day in the UK during the first half of the year as losses skyrocketed during the pandemic. Figures from UK Finance show fraud committed when individuals are tricked into handing over money and personal details surged by 71% compared with the first six months of last year. Less than half of the money lost in these cases was refunded by banks. In total, £754m was stolen through fraud in the first half of the year, an increase of 30% compared with the same period last year. Within this total, so-called authorised push payment (APP) fraud - when victims think they are paying a genuine organisation - rose by 71% to £355m. Managing director of the economic crime unit at UK Finance, Katy Worobec, called for “coordinated action and increased efforts from government and other sectors to tackle what is now a national security threat.”

 

BBC News

The Times

City A.M.

The Commons International Trade Committee has warned that overseas investment in the UK is too focused on London and the South East to provide the broad economic benefits that the Government plans under its levelling up agenda. The regions have accounted for 47.5% of projects announced by inward investors since 2003, the MPs said in a report. They pointed out that new trade and investment hubs, designed to promote local investment initiatives, have been established in each of the devolved nations, but there is only one in the English regions - in Darlington in the North East. Committee chair Angus MacNeil said: "If the Government is serious about its levelling-up agenda, it needs to show it has a plan to maximise the benefits of inward investment in all parts of the UK.”

 

The Times

 

The government is consulting on potential legislation to raise funds to fight economic crime, which could impose tax bills of up to £250,000 on large organisations, such as City law firms. HM Treasury is seeking views on draft legislation for a levy that aims to raise £100m per year, ahead of its inclusion in the 2021-22 Finance Bill. The tax will be paid by all groups that are subject to UK money laundering regulations, including legal practices, banks and accountancy firms. AML-regulated entities with over £10.2m in UK revenue will be liable to pay the levy, which will first be collected in 2023/24. Companies will pay the levy as a fixed fee based on the “size” band they belong to. According to the draft legislation, an entity with “medium” UK revenue – defined as between £10.2m and £36m per levy year – will be charged between £5,000 and £15,000 annually. Those with “large” revenues – between £36m and £1bn per levy year – will be charged between £30,000 and £50,000 annually. Meanwhile, companies with “very large” revenues of more than £1bn per levy year will be charged between £150,000 and £250,000.

 

Law Gazette

A specialist unit set up by HMRC in 2019 to investigate tax avoidance risks associated with family investment companies (FICs) has been wound up. HMRC said the three-person team had been disbanded because they found no evidence of a correlation between FICs and illegal activities or non-compliant acts. “The review was prompted by an increase in FICs being created and concerns over whether they are linked to tax avoidance,” explained Ben Taylor, an associate solicitor at Roythornes Solicitors. “For those of us advising on the role of a FIC in estate and tax planning, it wasn’t surprising [the unit is disbanded],” Taylor told City A.M.

 

City A.M.

Kwasi Kwarteng told the business select committee on Wednesday that the Government is considering a windfall tax on energy generating and trading companies that profit from increases in gas prices. The business and energy secretary warned MPs that preparations were being made for gas prices to remain high for some time. He added: "I'm not a fan of windfall taxes, let me just get that straight – but of course it's an entire system and we have to think of how we can get the whole system to help itself." His comments come as two more energy suppliers collapsed, bringing the total to seven in a little over six weeks.

 

The Guardian

The Independent

Environment Secretary George Eustice has revealed that the British food industry will be forced to pay five times more for carbon dioxide as part of a Government deal with a US company to restart production in the UK. Mr Eustice said carbon dioxide prices would rise from £200 per tonne to £1,000, after revealing the Government has agreed to pay out tens of millions of pounds to CF Industries to reopen a plant in the UK. However, Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, welcomed the decision, but said the timetable to restart CF Industries' factory and begin producing carbon dioxide "will still be tight." He said: "Our understanding is that provided that carbon dioxide starts to get through to food producers by the end of the week, then we can avert major and significant disruption in our stores."

 

BBC News

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) has called on the Government to introduce an emergency visa to allow firms to recruit from outside the UK, after warning of panic-buying this Christmas unless action is taken to address labour shortages. Minette Batters, the head of the NFU, wrote to Boris Johnson warning that the food and farming sector is on a "knife edge" due to a shortage of workers across the entire supply chain. The letter, signed on behalf of a number of food and drink trade bodies, urged the Government to introduce a COVID-19 recovery visa to open up new recruitment opportunities as a matter of urgency. Ms Batters wrote: "Without it, more shelves will go empty and consumers will panic buy to try to get through the winter.” She said it is "a travesty that this is happening in parallel with UK food producers disposing of perfectly edible food as it either cannot be picked, packed, processed or transported to the end customer."

 

BBC News

A trader is suing UBS claiming the “toxic” work environment at the bank’s London office and “punishing workload” caused his mental health to deteriorate. Simon Rope is claiming upwards of £200,000 for negligence over an anxiety disorder which was caused by “the stress to which he was subjected in” the London office according to his lawyers. In April 2018, Mr. Rope made two trading mistakes that caused him to cry in front of colleagues, City A.M. reports. After the incident he was signed off work sick and has been considered unfit to return ever since.

 

City A.M.

A survey of 500 senior executives by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has found that 70% are worried about the potential risks of discrimination against staff on the basis of vaccination status.

 

Financial Times

Logistics and delivery companies are automating their businesses to tackle labour shortages as the monotony of some jobs makes recruiting and retaining workers harder, and customer orders become increasingly complex.

 

Financial Times

Kewsong Lee, the CEO of Carlyle Group, said on Wednesday that the private equity firm remained committed to China despite recent policy moves by authorities in Beijing. Lee said there were still opportunities available to investment firms with local expertise such as Carlyle that can navigate the country's complex regulatory environment. He went on to say that in the first half of this year nearly 60% of the board directors who joined companies that have been controlled by Carlyle for at least two years were from diverse backgrounds, putting it ahead of its 30% target.

 

Daily Mail

Neil Hodge talks to Weng Yee Ng, director at fraud investigator Forensic Risk Alliance, about the need for some companies to ask more questions of their auditors. Considering the repeated criticisms of Big Four auditors by the Financial Reporting Council, Ng says boards and audit committees should quiz auditors about “whether they have applied appropriate professional scepticism throughout the audit, particularly in challenging the information provided by management.” But Julie Matheson, head of accounting regulation at Kingsley Napley, says while recent scandals have flagged up failings in terms of poor audit quality and a lack of scepticism, “The responsibility of management for the failure of the companies should not be overlooked.”

 

Compliance Week

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has said the regulator will step up its oversight of high risk cryptocurrency products and firms engaging in severe misconduct. In a speech delivered at the Lord Mayor’s City Banquet at Mansion House, Rathi echoed a warning from FCA chair Charles Randell that the public should not trust cryptocurrency investment advice pumped out by social media influencers. The FCA was pursuing a more agile approach to overseeing the UK’s financial services industry, Rathi said, adding: “We have often been criticised for acting slowly or with too much risk aversion. This is changing.”

 

City A.M.

The Bank of England is looking to strip back regulations for small lenders to boost banking competition, Sam Woods, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, has said. In his annual Mansion House speech, Woods said the Bank was taking advantage of Brexit by designing a simpler set of rules for smaller banks and building societies now that it can “take back control” of financial regulation. “Pretty much everyone thinks this is a good idea,” he added.

 

The Times

The UK's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on Wednesday issued guidance for companies to improve their disclosures on viability and going concern, following a review of a selection of main market and AIM-listed companies' annual reports and accounts. The regulator called for businesses to better report their longer-term viability and liquidity to investors – particularly during times of economic uncertainty. The FRC's Executive Director of Regulatory Standards Mark Babington explained: “High-quality viability and going concern disclosures are vital for investors and other users of accounts to help them make informed decisions about a company's liquidity, solvency and longer-term viability. This is particularly important during times of uncertainty and economic volatility.” He added companies should also outline how they intend to improve their vulnerabilities to economic uncertainty for shareholders. “Companies should carefully consider the review findings with a view to improving their viability and going concern disclosures in their upcoming annual reports and accounts,” Babington said.

 

Financial Times

City A.M.

Bluebell Capital Partners is following Elliott Management in accusing GlaxoSmithKline boss Dame Emma Walmsley of not being qualified to lead a new Glaxo pharma arm. The London-based activist hedge fund took a €10m stake in the group to back proposals put forward by Elliott Management that would force Walmsley to reapply for her job as chief executive.

 

The Times

Daily Mail

The Daily Telegraph

Deutsche Bank chair Paul Achleitner said on Wednesday that international regulators and investors do not fully understand how German corporate governance works and expect too much of supervisory boards.

 

Financial Times

The European Commission has unveiled a short-term €90bn capital boost for Europe’s insurers which it hopes will boost investment in the region’s economy.

 

Financial Times

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, who created the Oxford vaccine, has said Covid is unlikely to mutate into a much deadlier variant and will eventually just cause the common cold. She said viruses tend to “become less virulent as they circulate' through the population, adding: 'There is no reason to think we will have a more virulent version of Sars-CoV-2.”

 

Daily Mail