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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is examining whether vulnerable fraud victims are being wrongly denied refunds and has warned of “consequences” for banks that have failed to treat victims fairly. Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Where the [customer’s] vulnerability is of a kind that affects the person’s ability to make a decision in their own interests they should be reimbursed. If the banks are getting it wrong more often than they are getting it right, there will be consequences with the FCA.” Three in four fraud victims are wrongly denied refunds, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Industry figures show that fewer than one in two fraud victims receive compensation from their bank, while just £271m of the £583m lost to scams last year was returned. Consumer finance campaigner Mark Taber described the treatment of the victims by their banks as “inhumane,” adding that “scammers target vulnerable people with savings and they keep going until they have everything . . . Banks have a duty to stop this happening, but they are failing to do it,” he warned.

 

The Daily Telegraph

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The National Cyber Security Centre and other Government agencies are investigating a cyber-attack on NHS software supplier Advanced, which provides services for NHS 111 and handles patient records. The firm revealed last week that it had been the target of a ransomware attack, and was investigating “potentially impacted data.” The Information Commissioner’s Office is also “making inquiries” into the incident. Advanced has said it may take longer than three weeks to fully recover. An NHS psychiatrist told the BBC that the attack had left his team “making clinical decisions nearly blind,” while NHS England has said that patients “will face longer waits than usual” when using NHS services, including the NHS 111 phone service. Surrey University cybersecurity professor Alan Woodward commented: “Even if it was ransomware … that doesn’t mean data was not stolen. Ransomware has evolved to not simply encrypt the data on the users’ devices but also to steal the data (the item of real value) and demand a ransom for its safe return/destruction.” Meanwhile, four in five NHS trusts have faced record levels of cyber-attacks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports The Daily Telegraph.

 

BBC News

The Daily Telegraph

The Guardian

Businesses are facing higher energy costs from October 1st, with suppliers refusing to renew their fixed-rate contracts, leaving them on expensive and unpredictable floating tariffs. About 70% of firms renew their fixed-term deals in October. However, brokers that negotiate the contracts say SMEs are failing to secure new fixed offers, partly due to credit insurers refusing to cover energy firms’ business clients, making it too risky to offer them long-term deals. Shaun McClarnon, managing director of the consultancy Brownlow Utilities, said: “Most of the renewals are in October, so you’ve got this cliff edge,” adding that suppliers are being “a lot tighter on credit” due to “vast” increases in electricity and gas prices. Liam Conway, head of sales at broker Control Energy Costs, said the number of open contracts that have not been sorted “is absolutely unprecedented.”

 

The Times

Raj Mody, global head of pensions consulting at PwC, says UK government plans to ramp up scrutiny of final salary pension scheme funding could be a “straitjacket” for the industry. The Department for Work and Pensions is consulting on plans to increase scrutiny of defined benefit schemes’ funding and investment strategies and require them to submit plans to The Pensions Regulator. Mr Mody warned that this is “a straitjacket for pension schemes,” adding that it is “one size fits all in terms of features of what the end target should look like.” He warned that rather than unlock funding from the schemes, the increased scrutiny could lead to more cash being locked up in pensions, noting that pension schemes are likely to end up with funds surplus to requirements. In an interview with the FT, Sarah Smart, the chair of The Pensions Regulator, says reforms to pension rules will mean some UK employers will have to clear scheme deficits faster than currently scheduled.

 

Financial Times

The Times

City AM

The £1bn takeover of Clipper Logistics by American rival GXO Logistics is being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The competition regulator has started a phase 1 investigation into the acquisition of the ecommerce services group and will decide by October 10 whether to refer the takeover for a more in-depth investigation. This comes two and a half months after GXO concluded the deal and Clipper delisted from the London Stock Exchange. The CMA had told GXO that although it was allowed to complete the deal it was barred from taking any steps to integrate Clipper it started its inquiry. If it rules that the deal will harm competition, the CMA could force GXO to unwind the acquisition and sell Clipper.

 

The Times

Credit reference agencies are making millions of pounds by promoting credit cards and loans to borrowers worried about their finances, research by the Sunday Times’ George Nixon has found. He says the firms, which collect data from banks, energy companies and other business that people have a credit agreement with, “bombarded” consumers with adverts telling them they could boost their creditworthiness and ease financial pressures by taking on debt, landing commission for every product taken out. James Daley from the consumer group Fairer Finance believes credit advertising should face far tighter regulation, saying: “Firms should be allowed to make you aware of products, but any attempt to entice you to borrow should be banned.” The Financial Conduct Authority has been looking into the credit check market amid concerns that it does not work well for consumers and is expected to report its findings next month.

 

The Sunday Times

The UK’s trade deficit - the value of exports minus the value of imports - hit a record £27.9bn in Q2. Imports increased by £14.3bn to reach £206.6bn, while exports were up by £12.3bn to £178.6bn, according to the Office for National Statistics. Removing the effect of inflation, the total trade deficit, excluding precious metals, narrowed by £2.4bn to £22.6bn in the second quarter and came in at 4.5% of the UK’s GDP. While sanctions against Russia saw fuel imports fall to zero in June, the total value of monthly imports from Russia fell to the lowest on record at £33m – down from around £1.8bn in January and February. Imports of fuels from the EU rose by £400m in June, with a £500m rise in imports from non-EU nations. Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, described the trade data as grim, adding that it would worsen further over the coming months.

 

The Times

Evening Standard

Business bodies have warned the Government against rushing into a bad trade deal with India to meet a self-imposed deadline to get it “done by Diwali.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this year urged negotiators to finalise a post-Brexit free trade agreement before the festival, which falls on October 24th. In a letter to Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a group of 11 bodies said it is “the content of the deal which matters for UK businesses, not speed of negotiation.” Signatories including TechUK, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, the Chemical Industries Association and the City of London Corporation said: “We appreciate the efforts of negotiators on both sides, who are working tirelessly, but substance needs to come before any deadline.” A Department for International Trade spokesperson said: “We remain clear that we won’t sacrifice quality for speed and will only sign a deal which delivers for the UK.”

 

The Independent

Brexit has intensified labour shortages in the UK over the past year, according to Oxford academics and ReWage, a group of independent experts. The analysis suggests that the hospitality and lower-skilled sectors were worst hit by the end of free movement of EU citizens into the UK. The report says that while Brexit "exacerbated" chronic labour shortages in Britain, the pandemic, early retirement among the over-50s, high employment levels across Europe and international labour shortages were also contributing factors. Data show that just 43,000 EU citizens received visas for work, family, study or other purposes in 2021, far below the 230,000 to 430,000 EU citizens coming to the UK annually in the six years to March 2020, according to Office for National Statistics estimates.

 

Financial Times

The Guardian

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) believes the UK’s hiring boom will soon reach its peak. The institute’s latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook says the labour market remains “incredibly tight”, with many firms raising wages and offering applicants more flexible options. Private sector pay expectations have hit a record high of 4%, while the median across all sectors stands at 3%. The survey of 2,000 senior HR staff found that 72% expect to recruit in the next three months, while 13% expect to make redundancies. Jonathan Boys, the CIPD’s labour market economist, said: “We’re seeing some of the highest pay awards in recent history as employers strive to attract and retain staff. However, strong pay growth can’t last forever.”

 

The Times

TikTok created what staff described as a “kill list” of colleagues that the company wanted to force out of its London office, indicative of an apparent culture clash with Chinese parent ByteDance.

 

Financial Times

Cryptocurrency billionaire Ben Delo is to bring a landmark legal challenge to Britain’s data regulator. Lawyers for Delo, a co-founder of BitMEX, said he had been granted permission for a judicial review of the Information Commissioner’s Office. The move is the latest twist in a dispute between Delo and Wise Payments, a money transfer business. Delo sued Wise last December over allegations that the company had refused his requests under data protection regulations to hand over information about him that it had submitted to the National Crime Agency.

 

The Times

Nearly two-thirds of UK firms have been hit by the effects of Russian sanctions since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to a survey from insurance buyer Mactavish. It found that 71% of British businesses had assets that have been directly affected by measures imposed on Russia. Nearly half of these flagged increases in costs and disruption to their production lines, while 44% have lost suppliers and 42% have experienced workforce issues. The finance sector has fared the worst, with 92% of businesses in the industry suffering due to their exposure to assets and funds located in Russia.

 

Daily Mail

Research by law firm Pinsent Masons shows that fewer than one in twenty liable businesses have registered for the new plastic packaging tax. This has raised concerns that HMRC will not pull in the £235m it expected and firms will be hit by fines for non-payment. Businesses that manufacture or import ten tonnes or more of plastic packaging will have to pay £200 for each tonne of packaging that does not contain at least 30% recycled content by the end of this tax year. While firms have been able to register for the tax since April - and were expected to have completed their first quarter report by the end of last month - Pinsent Masons has found that only 992 businesses signed up in April, despite estimates that 20,000 businesses would be affected by the levy. HMRC said it is liaising with business to ensure compliance.

 

The Times

Leading hedge funds have targeted fast-fashion retailers Asos and Boohoo as they bet on the impact of a greenwashing investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The competition watchdog is probing whether some of the firms’ sustainability claims are potentially misleading to consumers. CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell says the regulator will pursue a claim in court if it finds evidence of wrongdoing. Since the announcement on July 29th, short sellers including Marble Bar Asset Management, GLG, CapeView Capital and AHL Partners have boosted their bets that Boohoo and Asos's share prices will drop further. Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell, said that if the firms are found to have misled consumers and are fined, the reputational damage would hit share prices.

 

Daily Mail