City watchdog sacked 12 for misconduct amid crackdown on firms August 13, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority sacked 12 workers as a result of misconduct allegations, Morning Wire can reveal. Official figures show nearly 40 members of staff were formally disciplined by the City watchdog between 2022 and 2024 due to misconduct. A dozen of these were dismissed from their post with 10 handed a “final written warning”. [...]
CMA’s Google crackdown will put the UK’s AI revolution on hold August 13, 2025 The heavy hand of the CMA, on Google and tech companies it barely understands, will stop the UK from capitalising on AI, writes Matthew Lesh.
S&U shares jump as bank predicts profit ‘resurgence’ August 12, 2025 Shares in specialist lender S&U rallied as markets opened on Tuesday after the bank said its “resurgence in profitability” had begun to materialise. The London-listed firm’s stock was up over three per cent in early trading to 1,940. The jump came after the lender provided an upbeat trading update, anticipating building momentum for the second [...]
UK fintech investment slumps despite push from Rachel Reeves August 11, 2025 Fintech investment across the UK suffered another downturn in the first half of the year despite Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ bold ambitions for the sector. Total UK fintech investment fell to $7.2bn (£5.36bn) – a drop of five per cent from the same period in 2024. The decline, revealed in KPMG’s bi-annual Pulse of Fintech report, [...]
Motor finance: Lords sound alarm on FCA’s redress scheme August 8, 2025 The House of Lords’ Financial Services Regulation Committee has sounded the alarm on “market uncertainty” around the UK financial watchdog’s upcoming motor finance redress scheme. In a letter addressed to the Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive Nikhil Rathi, the committee “considers it of importance” to receive further insight into the forthcoming scheme. The City watchdog [...]
FOS complaints tumbled ahead of motor finance ruling August 7, 2025 Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) fell to their lowest in more than a year ahead of the motor finance ruling. The FOS received 68,000 new cases in April to June, down from 74,600 complaints in the same period of 2024. Motor finance complaints remained the highest grievance but dropped to 21,500 cases from [...]
Revolut drafts in EY amid banking licence push August 7, 2025 Revolut has tapped accountancy giant EY to replace BDO as its auditor as the firm pushes to secure its UK banking licence. The UK fintech juggernaut said EY will act as the firm’s auditor for the financial year ending December 2026 after a formal bidding process. This comes as Revolut expects to launch as a [...]
Metro Bank trebles profit amid pivot to specialist lending August 6, 2025 Metro Bank more than trebled its profit in the first six months of the year as its transformation strategy gained pace. The high street lender recorded an underlying profit before tax of £45m, compared with £12.8m in the second half of 2024. Revenue grew 22 per cent to £286m whilst operating costs fell eight per [...]
FCA boss rejects criticism of motor finance redress August 5, 2025 The head of the UK’s financial watchdog has pushed back at industry claims that the wide scope of the motor finance redress scheme is “impractical”. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority said: “We know it is difficult. But you can’t say the law has been broken and it is too difficult to [...]
S&U: Motor finance redress scheme must show a changed FCA August 5, 2025 The chair of specialist lender S&U has said the motor finance redress scheme offers the UK’s financial watchdog the prime opportunity to turn its ‘regulate for growth’ rhetoric into action. Anthony Coombs hailed the “common sense” car finance ruling from the Supreme Court as attention turns to the response by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). But [...]