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Senior executives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest defended their savings deals before MPs on Tuesday following charges that they were failing to pass on interest rate rises. Since December 2021, rates have risen from 0.1% to a 15-year high 4% now, but MPs said mortgage rates had risen more rapidly than the returns offered to savers when the base rate went up. Bank bosses were accused of prioritising profits but they disputed this, arguing that the debate had incorrectly centred on the interest rate offered on easy-access savings accounts, whereas regular saver deals offered market-leading rates of interest. The bankers were also pressed on the thousands of branch closures in recent years. They responded by telling the committee they were committed to keeping physical networks in the UK and gave examples of cash pods, bank hubs, mobile banking vans, and smart ATMs as alternatives.

 

BBC News

Financial Times

The Times

City AM

FTSE 250 engineering group Morgan Advanced Materials has said a cyberattack last month would weaken profits and increase its costs. The Berkshire-based company said the disruption would reduce adjusted operating profit by between 10 and 15%, and that some of its manufacturing sites continued to use manual processes. The company has also been forced to delay publication of its results for last year, with the company’s auditors, PwC, prevented from gaining access to all the necessary systems following the attack.

 

The Times

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned investors who backed an unregulated firm called Argento Wealth Ltd, which attracted almost £3m in deposits, that they should brace for "very significant losses" from the scheme. The watchdog alleged on Tuesday that Argento (AWL) unlawfully took about £2.8m "as deposits under loan agreements and/or as part of an unauthorised collective investment scheme." The FCA started legal proceedings in the High Court against Argento and sole director Daniel Willis last year to try to recoup money for investors.

 

The Times

A Ukrainian court has frozen the bank accounts of Ferrexpo Poltava Mining, which operates Ferrexpo’s largest mine in the country. The move comes as part of an investigation related to potential underpayment of royalties. In a statement, Ferrexpo said: “Ferrexpo denies all accusations made as part of the investigation and confirms that it has consistently operated in accordance with the legal and fiscal frameworks of Ukraine.”

 

The Times

BP has reported that profits more than doubled to $27.7bn (£23bn) in 2022, as energy prices soared after Russia invaded Ukraine. Alongside the results, BP said it was scaling back plans to reduce the amount of oil and gas it produces by 2030. The energy giant had committed to cutting emissions by 35%-40% by 2030, but has now revised this to a reduction of 25% on 2019 levels, saying it needed to keep investing in oil and gas to meet current demands. Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, said the company was responding to demands for an energy system that is “secure and affordable as well as lower carbon”. He added: “We are growing our investment into our transition and, at the same time, growing investment into today’s energy system.”

 

New York Times

The Daily Telegraph

The Times

Semiconductor designer Arm has said it has yet to make a decision on where to list as the UK government continues its charm offensive in the hope of luring the Cambridge-based company to the London Stock Exchange. The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have been offering to relax certain rules in an attempt to persuade Arm’s owner Softbank to agree to a London float. But the Institute of Directors (IoD) has hit out at the moves, saying there was a “real danger” in trying to rewrite the rulebook to lure specific companies to the City. Roger Barker, director of policy and corporate governance at the IoD, said “watering down established governance rules in order to win transactions . . . undermines the integrity of both the rules themselves and the UK's wider governance framework.”

 

Daily Mail

The Daily Telegraph

Iceland claims it remains “incredibly well positioned” despite having its cover pulled by credit insurer Coface. The insurer cut cover for the frozen supermarket chain in December – following a similar move by Allianz and Atradidus. However, a spokesperson for Iceland said: “All credit insurers have reduced cover across UK food retail, not just Iceland, over the past 6 month. There are many credit insurers in the market, and we know of over £150m of Iceland credit cover still available in the market.” Iceland also told City AM that Coface has confirmed it is already “looking to reinstate this cover.”

 

City AM

Data published on Tuesday showed banks had been paid £4.4bn of taxpayers’ money to cover default and fraud on the £77bn in state-guaranteed loans made to struggling businesses during the pandemic. Of the £77bn worth of emergency taxpayer-backed funding provided across three pandemic loan schemes, at least £11bn is in arrears or defaulted. Some £640m worth of facilities were marked as “suspected fraud”. The report, which covers the period to the end of December, will add to concerns about the scale of taxpayer losses on the schemes. The latest release covers the £46.6bn bounce back loan scheme and the £25.9bn coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILs), both of which were aimed at small and medium-sized companies, and a £4.5bn version of CBILs aimed at large businesses.

 

Financial Times

The Times

The boss of insurance giant Lloyd's of London has said the UK's reputation for financial stability was dented by a year of political turmoil. John Neal said confidence in the UK had been hit by a high turnover of prime ministers and a mini-budget which saw the pound drop and mortgage rates soar. He said the UK should not take its position as a global financial centre for granted. "We're at an important moment. We've really got to re-prove our value proposition, I think there's a responsibility on government and us in business to get it right.”

 

BBC News

Former Prime Minister John Major has described Brexit as a “colossal mistake” and accused Boris Johnson of agreeing to the Northern Ireland protocol despite knowing it was unworkable. “That must be the first agreement in history that was signed by people who decided it was useless in the first place,” Major told a Westminster committee on Tuesday. Leaving the EU had left the UK outside the world’s main three power blocs, he said. “There is America, there is China and there is the European Union. We should be in Europe.” Major was appearing as a witness at a committee hearing discussing power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

 

The Guardian

The Independent

The Bank of England and Treasury have opened a four-month consultation process and will then push ahead with designs for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC). Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor of the Bank of England, said that a limit will initially be set, if the digital currency gets the go-ahead, to manage risks but ensure it is accessible. “We propose a limit of between £10,000 and £20,000 per individual as the appropriate balance between managing risks and supporting wide usability of the digital pound,” he said. Sir Jon also said that the potential digital currency could “complement existing financial inclusion initiatives” such as helping people make payments offline or improve cross-border payments.

 

City AM

London Evening Standard

Mirror

The Times

Boeing plans to cut about 2,000 jobs in finance and human resources this year, as it focuses on engineering and manufacturing. The move comes as the company puts more of its resources into "products, services and technology development." It will outsource some of the roles to Tata Consulting Services, a unit of one of India's largest conglomerates.  "We have and will continue to communicate transparently with our teams that we expect lower staffing within some corporate support functions," the company told the BBC. "As always, we will support affected teammates and provide assistance and resources to support their transition," it added.

 

BBC News

The Daily Telegraph

City AM

Video conferencing company Zoom is laying off 1,300 staff as the pandemic-driven boom in online meetings slows. The layoffs will hit nearly 15% of its workforce. CEO Eric Yuan said: "We worked tirelessly . . . but we also made mistakes. We didn't take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyse our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities.” Mr Yuan said he would also reduce his salary in the coming fiscal year by 98% and forego his bonus. Other members of the executive leadership team will see their base salaries fall by 20% and lose bonuses, he added.

 

BBC News

New York Times

Reuters

The Daily Telegraph

Jupiter Asset Management has sold its stake in digital bank Starling to the digital bank’s existing shareholders as the fund group moves to limit its exposure to unlisted stocks.

 

Financial Times

The Times

McDonald's has signed a legally binding agreement with the UK's Equalities and Human Rights Commission which requires the company to deal with what is thought to be more than 1,000 complaints from staff about workplace behaviour. The UK’s Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU)  has previously raised the alarm over a “toxic culture” in McDonald’s restaurants. Ian Hodson, national president of the BFAWU, said: “It’s shameful that one of the richest corporations on the planet doesn’t take sexual harassment seriously until we raise it . . . I pay tribute to all our members who have spoken out on this issue and encourage McDonald’s to work with us in ending sexual harassment.” The agreement commits the group to a number of measures to better protect workers in the UK, including communicating a “zero tolerance” approach to sexual harassment, providing anti-harassment training for employees, and improving policies to better respond to complaints.

 

ITV News

The Guardian

The Independent

Roughly 100,000 civil servants are set to strike on the day the Chancellor unveils the Spring Budget, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has said. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said members would walk out on 15 March as part of an ongoing row with the government over pay and conditions. PCS members were "suffering a completely unacceptable decline in their pay,” Serwotka explained. The government has previously offered civil servants a 2% to 3% pay rise, but union bosses have been calling for a rise of 10%.

 

BBC News

Daily Mail

The Guardian