The new prime minister must push through a swathe of reforms to the City if the UK is to regain its place as the “world’s foremost international centre of finance”, a top lobby group warned today.

In a new manifesto for the incoming prime minister, advocacy group TheCityUK said the two Tory leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss needed to outline a vision for financial reform and be prepared to work with industry upon taking office.

Delivering the Financial Services and Markets Bill as soon as possible and scrapping EU-era Solvency II legislation to unleash a wave of UK infrastructure investment should be among the measures at the top of the agenda for the incoming prime minister, the group said, alongside reforming the UK’s capital markets regime.

“The financial services and related professional services industry is a British success story – but we can do more,” theCityUK chief Miles Celic said in the manifesto. 

“As we reach...

Europe’s largest energy network operator has slashed the value of its stake in the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline by around €700m, blaming “heightened uncertainty” over the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chief Executive Leonhard Birnbaum told reporters. “The current energy crisis finally makes clear that Europe needs to transform its energy system. To be independent of Russian gas. To ensure supply security,”

The pipeline is currently pumping gas from Russia to Germany at just a fifth of its capacity.

E.ON revealed in March that the 15.5 per cent stake, held indirectly via the firm’s pension fund, has a book value of €1.2bn – meaning today’s decision translates into a 58 per cent drop in value.

Europe and Russia are at the centre of an escalating energy stand-off that has pitted gas-dependent EU states against Russia and the Kremlin-backed gas giant Gazprom.

Russia has been putting the West under increasing pressure since the...

Hungarian energy group MOL has submitted transit fees to Ukraine, on behalf of Russia, to restart flows of oil crude from the country.

MOL revealed on Wednesday it had transferred the transit fee for the use of the Ukrainian section of the pipeline, which it said provided “a swift solution” to disruptions in supplies.

This follows EU sanctions blocking flows via the pipeline, putting pressure on European countries still reliant on Kremlin-backed energy supplies.

The payment reflects the growing uncertainty over sanctions in the face of anticipated supply shortages this winter, raising the prospect of fractures within Europe over the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

State-owned news agency RIA has now reported that pipeline monopoly Transneft planned to resume oil pumping through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline.

This follows Transneft revealing Russian oil pipeline flows had...

Arsenal football club have been rebuked by the Advertising Standards Agency which today declared it had upheld its ruling against the club relating to NFT promotions.

The ASA said the Gunners had promoted a crypto investment without suitable warnings about the risks associated with it.

The club was slammed over two adverts for ‘fan tokens’ which, said the authority, had taken advantage of fans’ lack of knowledge in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and failed to make clear that digital assets had to be purchased using cryptocurrency.

Today’s reprimand came following an appeal from the club against the ASA’s ruling over the original complaints in 2021.

Susannah Streeter, a senior investment and markets analyst with Hargreaves Lansdown said the ASA had cried foul on the club for not making it sufficiently clear that the value of investments in paid-for fan tokens was variable and that the crypto assets were unregulated.

‘’The Advertising...

Half of the UK’s technology companies are lacking in the support necessary to scale the business, according to a new report today.

The UK has a thriving technology space, securing 54 IPOs which have collectively raised £3.2bn – with 37 of these taking place last year, the report by Tech Nation, a body for UK tech entrepreneurs, found.

The figure includes fan favourites such as Deliveroo, The Hut Group and Funding Circle, which cumulatively raised £1.91bn.

However, 50 per cent of tech companies – particularly those focussed on developing emerging technologies, such as cyber – are not scaling, the report found.

“We know that the UK is globally renowned for its success in fintech, which dominates for IPOs, and although this is truly exciting news, we must not ignore the fact that an even larger percentage of tech companies are not seeing the same success,” Dr George Windsor, research and data director...

August is here, the month of festival burgers, picnic sausages and garden party grilling. Though you may be used to a cold beer in the sun, if you want to elevate that hotdog with a nice glass, here are the summer wines – and top tips about drinking in the hot weather – to keep in mind.

Beer’s chilled bubbles are refreshing and a good balancer for your hunks of protein, so pick a wine to do the same job. English sparkling wine just keeps getting better and is a great choice with its typically crisp, cool elegance. If you prefer fruity and fresh, look instead to Prosecco to get the party started.

South Africa takes its meat so seriously that the braai could be regarded as the real national sport. As such it’s a great place to start your wine hunt. Any smokiness in your dish means a classic Pinotage will work well and if you are cooking for a crowd may I suggest Bruce Jack Pinotage Malbec at only £7 from Sainsburys. Full-bodied, smooth, and  packed...

Crypto giant Coinbase lost $1.1bn ($0.9bn) in the second quarter of the year as revenue dropped declined during the crypto crash.

$446mn (£365m) of this loss was due to an impairment charge on the exchange’s crypto and venture investments as the “crypto winter” led to plummeting cryptocurrency prices and caused widespread losses across the industry. 

Coinbase revenue tumbled over 60 per cent to about $808m (£660m), a sharp change from analyst expectations of near $855 (£699m), Bloomberg reported, with monthly transacting users dropping 2 per cent to 9m from the previous quarter.

The exchange’s trading volume declined 30 per cent and it suffered a $647m (£583m) operating loss before the impairment charge.

The company had revenues of $1.6bn (£1.3bn) last year, but the crypto crash this year led to declining activity and hit Coinbase hard, forcing it to cut staff by 18 per cent. Coinbase shares are down more than 10 per cent in 24 hours...

Last week, a coalition of thirteen of the UK’s major insurers vowed to cut their supply chain emissions as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s (SMI’s) sustainable supply chain pledge.

In signing the SMI pledge, the 13 insurers and brokers – including Axa, Phoenix, Lloyd’s, and Direct Line – vowed to work with their suppliers to set “meaningful” near-term sustainability targets that align with the Paris Agreement’s ambition to create a carbon neutral world by 2050.

Launched at Davos in 2020, the SMI itself was set up by Prince Charles with a view initiating action in the private sector by bringing together a coalition of major companies committed to accelerating “the transition to a sustainable future”.

In achieving its goals, the SMI pledge commits insurers to measuring and reporting on the carbon emissions that arise from them purchasing goods and services from other firms.

The pledge is set to see signees work to systematise...

Liz Truss has summoned China’s ambassador to the Foreign Office over Beijing’s military “escalation in the region around Taiwan”.

Truss said she summoned the Chinese ambassador to “explain his country’s actions”, after President Xi Jinping ordered military drills that surrounded Taiwan last week.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched five live-fire military drills in areas surrounding Taiwan, after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island.

Beijing still regards the island as a part of China and expects other countries to not have official diplomatic relations with the Taiwanese government.

China today announced it had ceased the military exercises, but said that further “training and war preparation” was underway.

In a statement released this afternoon, Truss said: “The UK and partners have condemned in the strongest terms China’s escalation in the region around Taiwan, as seen through our recent G7 statement.

Taiwanese Apple supplier Foxconn is “cautious” about upcoming demand, supply chains and operating performance, it’s chairman said today, as inflation spreads and tensions with China rise.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group, is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of semiconductors or computer chips.

The Taiwanese tech giant hit a record half-year revenue of NT$2.9 trillion (£79.9bn), it revealed today, up eight per cent in comparison with the first six months of last year.  

“Against a backdrop of slowing demand and supply chain disruptions, the strong operating performance demonstrates the high degree of the Group’s resilience,” chairman Young Liu said in a statement. “It reflects a better product portfolio and customer structure.”

The geopolitical climate, inflationary pressure and the Covid-19 pandemic has weighed on Foxconn outlook, added Liu. However, the company has lifted its full-year outlook for performance from...

US inflation is cooling much quicker than experts are betting in a sign the Federal Reserve’s series of steep rate hikes are quashing price pressures.

Prices climbed 8.5 per cent in the world’s biggest economy last month, down from a 40-year high 9.1 per cent, according to the Labor Department.

Wall Street had forecast headline consumer price index inflation to have dipped to 8.7 per cent in July.

Fed chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the federal open market committee have embarked on the quickest rate hike cycle since the early 1980s to tackle the inflation surge.

US borrowing climbs have climbed 225 basis points since March, including two successive 75 basis point rate hikes.

The return of soaring inflation has forced the Fed to breach recent monetary policy convention. Rates have been ultra-low since the financial crisis.

A sharp reduction in petrol prices pushed overall inflation beneath expectations.

Analysts had...

The UK’s City watchdog is set to swoop on asset managers to ensure they are properly promoting sustainable investments, as it prepares to ramp up scrutiny of ‘environmental, social and governance’ (ESG) investing.

In a ‘Dear CEO’ letter to the alternative asset management industry today, the Financial Conduct Authority said ESG remains a “priority area” and it was crucial that investors had confidence in the veracity of products that are being offered. 

“Firms should ensure that documentation of such products are clear, not misleading and that firms’ actions match the stated claims,” Nike Trost, Head of Asset Management and Pensions Policy at the FCA said. 

“Firms offering such products should expect to be subject to review to ensure marketing materials accurately describe their product, with funds offering clear and consistent disclosure,” he added.

The warning comes after the watchdog in December rolled out rules requiring asset...

Chinese authorities are urgently looking into a new deadly virus that has infected over three dozen people in the country, several media in Asia report this morning.

The virus, called Langya, is carried to humans from animals, particularly shrews, according to The Taipei Times.

The Langya henipavirus has been discovered in China, with 35 confirmed human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said today.

A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” is reportedly to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine tomorrow and will say that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness has been identified in China.

The patients have symptoms including fever, fatigue, a cough, loss of appetite , muscle pain, nausea, a headache and vomiting.

When asked for confirmation, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) on Sunday that said according to the...

Iran has confirmed it has officially made its first multi-million dollar import using cryptocurrency as it looks to circumvent US sanctions on its economy.

Tehran news agency Tasnim last night reported the order was worth $10 million, but it did not disclose what had been purchased or what digital asset had been used to make the transaction.

Government officials later confirmed the mystery import before declaring the Islamic republic would soon be leaning heavily on crypto for its international trade.

“By the end of September, the use of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts will be widely used in foreign trade with target countries,” an official from the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade stated on Twitter.

HM Revenues and Customs has received almost 14,000 whistleblower reports after launching online tip off service to make it easier to report instance of furlough fraud.

Thousands of people have blown the whistle on their employers and former-employers by reporting them for furlough fraud using HMRC’s digital reporting tool, analysis from law firm Pinsent Masons shows.

The launch of HMRC’s digital reporting service comes as part of the UK government’s wider efforts recover billions taken by criminals via fraudulent Covid financial support claims.

In one case, an Indian fraudster claimed £27.4m in furlough payments over a 14-month period, after registering four fake companies and claiming furlough for more than 2,700 non-existent employees.

In seeking to prompt more whistleblower reports, HMRC has pursued efforts to make easier for potential whistleblowers to act, by publishing information as to whether companies claimed furlough payments...

Household energy debt is standing at an all-time high of £1.3bn ahead of expected bill hikes this autumn, according to new research from Uswitch, the comparison and switching service.

This is nearly three times higher than it was in September last year.

Six million homes – almost a quarter of households (23 per cent) – owe an average of £206 to their energy provider this summer, which is a 10 per cent increase in just four months from April, when the average debt was £188.

Traditionally, this would be a time of year when bill-payers would expect to have built up a war chest to cope with winter bills, making the debts more alarming.

Ofgem will announce the new level of the price cap on August 26, which is predicted to rise from £1,971 to £3,582 this October, according to Cornwall Insight, and peak at £4,400 next year.

Households with poor efficiency ratings will have to cough up nearly £1,000 more on their energy bills this year than other well-insulated homes, according to new analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

The group found found homes rated band F on the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) system, a measure of the home’s efficiency will have a gas bill £968 higher than a home rated EPC band C, the Government’s target for 2035.

The average home in the UK is rated band D and these homes will pay £420 more for their gas this winter, compared to an EPC band C home.

Wholesale gas costs are expected to add £2,500 to energy bills during the gas crisis – with Cornwall Insight forecasting energy bills well over £4,000 per year over the coming months.

This includes electricity as high wholesale gas prices also have a knock-on effect in the power market.

When gas and electricity bills are taken together people living in the...

There’s nothing like being a tourist in your own city. Sometimes I go to Canary Wharf to pretend I’m in Downtown New York, with its vertiginous skyscrapers, wide thoroughfares that expand alongside water basins, and steakhouses and cocktail bars offering solace to tired bankers.

New Canary Wharf restaurant Feels Like June sounds like the perfect restaurant opening for this endlessly hot summer. Sitting on the outdoor terrace, the food was as thrilling to gawp at as the high rises, albeit for the few seconds before I crammed it all in my face.

It’s California-style – a popular concept at the moment, joining other new openings like Laurel’s – so there’s a focus on colour and vibrant flavour, also mirrored in the interior design, featuring lots of fun, eclectic art. To start we order a beets and goat cheese strattacino salad, which our lovely waiter described as a “village salad”.

Partners at Linklaters are set to receive payouts of £1.87m after posting slower growth than any other Magic Circle firm.

Linklaters’ £1.87m payouts saw the City of London law firm’s partner pay sit at lower levels than in any other Magic Circle firm.  

Linklaters said its profit-per-equity-partner payouts jumped 5.4 per cent to £1.87m after the firm’s revenues increased 6.5 per cent to £1.674bn.

The law firm’s position at the bottom of the Magic Circle’s pay scale comes after Linklaters posted lower revenue growth than any other Magic Circle firm.

The most recent results season saw payouts handed out to partners at both Freshfields and Clifford Chance surpass the £2m mark for the first time.

Meanwhile, partner pay at Allen & Overy lingered just below the symbolic £2m threshold at rates of £1.95m.

Linklaters’ higher revenues saw the law firm’s pre-tax profits increase 6.9 per cent to £871.7m.

The law firm...

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will hold emergency talks with energy sector chiefs today as the price cap was forecast to hit more than £4,400 in January.

In a new dire outlook for households, Cornwall Insight said bills are set to soar to around £3,582 in October, from £1,971 on Tuesday, before rising even further in the new year.

There has been widespread anger at Shell, BP and British Gas owner Centrica announcing bumper financial results while households struggle to cope with soaring bills.

The Sun reported gas and electricity executives will meet with the Cabinet ministers on Thursday morning, when the bosses will be asked to submit a breakdown of expected profits and payouts as well as investment plans for the next three years.

It comes as Liz Truss branded as “bizarre” proposals to agree support for rising energy bills with the Government and Rishi Sunak before the Tory leadership contest is over.

Liz Truss wants to give ministers the power to overrule decisions made by the UK’s financial services regulators in a move that is set to create serious tensions with the Bank of England.

The Tory leadership frontrunner wants to revive the policy, which was recently ditched by the Treasury, as a part of the government’s push to diverge from the EU’s City rulebook.

The Financial Times reports that Truss has told allies she “definitely” wants to pursue the change to combat City regulators making decisions that are deemed to be too cautious.

The call-in power was set to be included in the government’s post-Brexit Financial Services and Markets Bill, however it was removed by new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi after pressure from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.

Bailey told a Westminster committee last month that the City’s “international standing” depends on “the independence of regulators”.

Truss’ insistence on giving the government...

Chinese authorities are urgently looking into a new deadly virus that has infected over three dozen people in the country, several media in Asia report this morning.

The virus, called Langya, is carried to humans from animals, particularly shrews, according to The Taipei Times.

The Langya henipavirus has been discovered in China, with 35 confirmed human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said today.

A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” is reportedly to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine tomorrow and will say that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness has been identified in China.

The patients have symptoms including fever, fatigue, a cough, loss of appetite , muscle pain, nausea, a headache and vomiting.

When asked for confirmation, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (???) on Sunday that said according to the...

The metaverse and Virtual Reality have had the weight of a number of large big technology companies behind it in the last year, spearheaded by the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Not only did the industry see its proliferation increase substantially over the pandemic, but the hype has yet to deter, particularly with speculation around products such as Apple’s RealityOS and its AR/VR Headset.

That said, the technology itself, particularly within enterprise systems, has been relatively slow in its adoption.

This is because immersive content is more resource-intensive and therefore more expensive to develop, which in-turn creates quite the barrier amongst smaller companies. 

Amongst all of the upward trajectory surrounding the metaverse, it is easy for early-stage companies to get swept up in the overwhelm and believe that they need to incorporate this into their strategies.

City A.M. understands that many in the...

Data breaches driven by identity theft have been costing the UK near £4bn every year for almost a decade as fraud in the country rises.

Over 28m data breaches have occurred every year since 2013 at a cost of £3.7bn per year, with more than 140m files compromised, data by ID verification checks provider Credas Technologies found. 

Fraud in the nation surged by 22 per cent in just the past year, with 226,000 ID fraud cases reported.

“One of the most common motivations for data hacking is identity fraud and the latest data from the National Fraud Database (NFD) shows this fraudulent practice accounts for 63% of all cases of fraudulent conduct,” the company said.

Almost 10bn digital files have been stolen globally since 2013, with the UK the fifth most-affected nation after the US, India, China, and South Korea. 

Missing documents like passports and bank statements are used by identity thieves. “All of the most important...

What’s more important to success — talent or effort?

Most of us would say talent. But according to psychologist and best-selling author Angela Duckworth, most of us would be completely wrong.

That’s one of the main takeaways from her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In an interview at Alpha Summit GLOBAL from CFA Institute, Duckworth explained what her research has revealed about the nature of success and how talent and grit contribute to it.

From an early age, Duckworth – who is also founder and CEO of Character Lab (a US-based non-profit organisation that provides advice for parents and teachers based on science) and co-director at the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative – came to understand our tendency to overvalue talent. Her parents’ obsessive focus on achievement was a key factor.

“It was talked about all the time in our house,” she told the audience at the event, which was held in May. “Who was the most...