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.

Boaz Weinstein’s hedge fund is waging an aggressive campaign against the FTSE 250’s Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust

• Business live – latest updates

Here we go again: another episode in the Saba saga, the story of a New York hedge fund causing havoc in the UK investment trust sector by taking big stakes in funds and then demanding change, often in only vague terms.

The best that can be said about Saba Capital (and it’s not much) is that its belligerent boss, Boaz Weinstein, has disturbed the complacency that used to infect corners of the UK investment trust world, meaning companies that invest in other companies. It is now harder for a board to do nothing if the share price sits at a wide discount to the value of the underlying assets for long periods.

Owner of South West Water, Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water is tapping its investors for £550m after sewage spills

• South West Water owner taps investors after sewage spills

Water is “a service where the shareholders never lose and the public never win,” Andy Burnham, the prime minister, told the Labour party conference last week, reflecting the popular feeling towards the industry in England.

And, of course, his big-picture point is familiar: the £80bn, or thereabouts, that has been paid in dividends over the past 35 years represented over-the-top rewards for investors in many cases. It is easy to agree the public was taken for a ride.

Pennon slashes dividend and launches £550m cash call ‘to drive improved outcomes for customers and communities’

• Burnham, take note: water shareholders have their uses

The owner of embattled South West Water has slashed its dividend and launched a cash call to investors as it attempts to fund infrastructure investment, days after it was hit by a record £7.9m fine for hundreds of sewage spills.

London-listed Pennon said on Wednesday it would tap investors for £550m, as part of a £1bn investment “to drive improved outcomes for customers and communities”.