Concerns financial contracts known as derivatives were incorrectly logged, potentially boosting Barclays’ profits
The Bank of England is reportedly looking into Barclays’ handling of loans linked to the embattled private credit sector.
The Bank’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), started reviewing the matter earlier this year after concerns were raised by a Barclays insider, according to the Financial Times.
Financiers owe their windfalls and bonuses to higher interest rates. Britain should reclaim more for the public and resist City lobbying
John Healey is planning to tax British banks, the Guardian revealed, in the forthcoming budget. It’s about time for the chancellor to act. Banks have been raking it in. The campaign group Positive Money reported this summer that Britain’s four biggest banks made £29bn in the first half of this year, up a fifth on 2025. These windfalls owe more to higher interest rates than better products or services. Households and businesses pay more to borrow. Meanwhile, the Bank of England pays the banks tens of billions in interest on their reserves, with the Treasury footing the bill.
The chancellor is said to favour restoring the bank surcharge from 3% to 8%, which could raise around £2bn a year. This would recover a very modest share of the sector’s bonanza. Louis XIV’s finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, said that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”. Britain’s banks have plenty of feathers. That hasn’t stopped them hissing. The banks say that they already face higher taxes than other companies, that they won’t be able to lend as much, and that their profits won’t last.
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Move comes as Senator Elizabeth Warren condemns Barclays response to questions over ex-boss’s ties to sex offender
US lawmakers have unveiled a new bill to hold Wall Street’s “Epstein-connected” bosses to account for helping finance the late sex offender’s crimes.
It came as top Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the UK bank Barclays for “dodging responsibility” over its failure to vet former boss Jes Staley and his ties to the once well-connected billionaire.
Acquittals of five former bankers come year after supreme court overturned ruling against City trader Tom Hayes
Five more former traders who were jailed for rigging interest rates have had their convictions quashed by the court of appeal in London, after a long battle to clear their names.
The court overturned the convictions of Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham – all of whom worked at Barclays.