‘Compliance managers’ to have discussions with authority’s wealthiest customers in attempt to raise tax revenues

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The UK’s tax authority is assigning dedicated “customer compliance managers” to more than 200 billionaires as part of a crackdown meant to raise £500m for the public purse.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said it had for the first time compiled a list of billionaires who are required to pay tax in the UK, regardless of whether they formally live in the country, to tackle a “wealthy tax gap” caused by those who do not pay what they ought.

Application made for group claim seeking compensation for companies for alleged overcharging on customer card payments

Visa and Mastercard are being threatened with a potential £5bn lawsuit for allegedly stifling competition and charging UK businesses excessive fees.

The law firms Harcus Parker and Hausfeld have lodged an application at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in hopes of pursuing a group claim that would compensate companies who, they claim, have been overcharged on customer card payments since October 2020.

Regulators say removing ‘unnecessary burdens’ will save businesses about £2bn over 10 years

The UK is watering down rules introduced in the aftermath of the financial crisis that were designed to hold City bosses accountable for wrongdoing.

The plans, put forward by the financial industry’s two top regulators, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), include a reduction in reporting for “lower-level misconduct” and would also free 140,000 managers from extra checks.

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.

Eye-watering sum, to be split between 20 bankers, is one of the biggest payouts in the bank’s history

Top bosses at Goldman Sachs are in line to share a bonus pot worth up to $500m (£378m) this year, marking one of the biggest payouts in the Wall Street bank’s history.

The eye-watering sum will be shared between 20 bankers, with its chief executive, David Solomon, due to take about $100m (£75.6m) of the reward, which is made up of Goldman Sachs stock.

British banker Simon Andriesz helped to expose alleged ties between late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick

A top UK regulator has launched an investigation into how it handled a whistleblower – who highlighted alleged ties between the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick – after he took his own life.

The British banker Simon Andriesz died late last month aged 57, the campaign group Transparency Task Force, of which he was a member, confirmed over the weekend.

Revelation comes amid mounting concern over online prediction market’s effects on integrity of financial system

UK authorities are being urged to intervene after it emerged that the online prediction market Polymarket has been taking thousands of dollars worth of bets over whether HSBC and Lloyds will fail.

Polymarket – the US-owned company which holds bets on anything from football matches, to the existence of aliens, to when a bomb drops on a city – has allowed users to take $77,507 (£58,530) worth of positions on whether the world’s biggest banks will go under by the end of this year.

‘Radical’ report likely to influence party’s platform also proposes abolishing inheritance and capital gains taxes

A thinktank linked to Reform UK has called for the abolition of the state pension and £75bn worth of sweeping tax cuts in a “radical” report likely to influence the party’s platform for the next election.

The Centre for a Better Britain’s (CFABB) report – which also calls for weaker rules for UK banks and Trump-style investment accounts offering £1,000 to newborns – will be formally launched at a private event with City executives on Wednesday.

Union calls for payouts to help cover travel costs and exemption for those living more than 40 minutes away

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Barclays is facing a growing backlash over return-to-office plans, with thousands of staff calling for payouts to help cover travel costs and an exemption for those living more than 40 minutes from work.

Unionised staff represented by Unite are pushing back against plans announced by the bank earlier this summer to get staff back into the office at least three days a week from October, with more senior employees expected to come in at least four days a week.

Ahead of a crucial budget, four countries’ experiments offer a mixed verdict on how to tax bumper profits

The countdown is on. Two months out from Andy Burnham’s inaugural autumn budget, bank executives are wringing their hands over whether the government will target their bumper profits with fresh taxes.

The chancellor, John Healey, is reportedly considering a windfall tax on both banks and oil companies in the late October Westminster setpiece.

Jes Staley made comments to US lawmakers investigating his links to the convicted sex offender

The former Barclays boss Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned about an infamous email exchange about Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein.

The comments were detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month with US lawmakers as part of their investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

Finance sector will gain from the tech but it will need substantial investment and create risks, says rating agency

The rating agency Moody’s has said the race to adopt AI is putting big banks at the mercy of a small group of Silicon Valley firms, leaving them vulnerable to widespread outages and price gouging by profit-hungry tech bosses.

The financial sector’s efforts to integrate AI into day-to-day operations will eventually cut costs and increase revenues across the City and Wall Street, Moody’s said.

Levy could raise £19bn to help pay for Andy Burnham’s support for those struggling with bills, say campaigners

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Campaigners have renewed calls for a windfall tax on UK banks that could raise £19bn towards Andy Burnham’s cost of living agenda, after HSBC raked in $10.1bn (£7.5bn) worth of profits in the second quarter of the year.

Bosses at HSBC reported on Tuesday that profits rose 60% year on year in the three months to the end of June, helped by fees from wealth management and insurance business, as well as higher interest rates, which allow the bank to charge more for loans and mortgages.

Chief executive says the four-year plan will lead to greater efficiency but gives no details of potential job losses

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Lloyds Banking Group will cut another £2bn of costs as part of a four-year plan under which its chief executive will use new tech and AI to drive growth.

Charlie Nunn said the strategy, which the UK’s largest high street lender will launch in January, would involve investing £13bn into the business by 2030, including for “pioneering technology” to lure new business, improve efficiency and increase payouts for shareholders.

Exclusive: Elizabeth Warren says it is unclear how bank failed to uncover former CEO’s links with sex offender

The leading US senator Elizabeth Warren has called for urgent answers from Barclays over what she claimed was its “apparent failure to meaningfully investigate” ties between the bank’s former boss, Jes Staley, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a letter sent privately to Barclays’s chair, Nigel Higgins, and seen by the Guardian, Warren – the most senior Democrat on the US senate banking committee – said it was “deeply unclear how Barclays, supposedly investigating Staley’s connection to Epstein, failed to uncover this decades-long relationship”.

Campaigners hope move will force commercial banks to rethink holding assets linked to the fossil fuel

Climate campaigners have declared a victory after the Bank of England said it would no longer accept bonds linked to one of the most polluting industries on the planet for key loan arrangements.

The ban, which comes into force in October, marks a fresh crackdown on thermal coal, which is burned in power plants to create electricity, and has long been a target of green policy activists.

Exclusive: Plan to improve skills of thousands of financial sector workers to keep pace with tech revolution

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to announce a new City “skills compact” that will commit firms such as Barclays and Lloyds to retraining thousands of financial sector workers for the AI revolution.

The financial services skills compact will be launched on Tuesday, during what is likely to be Reeves’s final Mansion House speech to City bosses before Andy Burnham’s expected takeover of No 10. The government-backed initiative will commit employers to improving workers’ skills and helping them “keep pace” with significant technological changes that have prompted fears of mass redundancies.

City regulator will require booming industry to prove its resilience to risk from October next year

Crypto firms operating in the UK will be forced to prove they can weather market shocks and hold capital against risky assets as part of sweeping new rules announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The regulations will increase supervision of the crypto industry, which has so far has faced minimal oversight despite a boom in popularity linked to social media influencers and a legitimisation drive under the US president, Donald Trump.

Up to 4,000 community banks fear looming legislation to regulate digital cash will deprive rural firms and farmers of $850bn-worth of loans

On a quiet summer morning, above a small mid-western town, an American flag is waving in the breeze. The camera cuts to a father helping his son at the wheel of a tractor, and flits to a smiling couple on a grass-lined pavement, moments before flashing to grainy images of “crypto insiders” in suits.

“American families don’t want experiments with their money,” a voice booms. “They want jobs, growth, and available credit. When crypto gets a free pass, communities pay the price.”

Exclusive: While recruits will increase headcount for now, broader adoption of AI could lead to jobs cuts in future

Lloyds Banking Group has launched an AI recruitment drive for 300 tech experts, weeks before its chief executive, Charlie Nunn, unveils a strategic plan for the 261-year old lender.

The bank said it intended the recruits to work on its use and development of agentic AI by September, referring to autonomous artificial intelligence models that can plan and execute tasks with minimal human oversight.