Owner of collapsed lender MFS hit with freezing order March 19, 2026 The owner of a collapsed shadow bank has been hit with a worldwide freezing order after his firm faced fraud allegations. Paresh Raja, founder of Market Financial Solutions (MFS), has been told by courts in London and Dubai to give details of all his assets worth more than £10,000 and cannot spend more than £5,000 [...]
Zopa Bank’s profit booms despite ‘penalised’ motor finance hit March 19, 2026 Zopa Bank cruised to its third consecutive year of profitability in 2025 but has offered a stark warning it feels “penalised” by the UK’s financial watchdog after getting swept up in the motor finance scandal. The Canary Wharf fintech has set aside £7.9m in provisions for the car mis-selling saga, which centres around the use [...]
Treasury reforms to banks ombudsman threaten independence, MPs warn March 18, 2026 The Treasury’s reforms to the banks ombudsman threaten to upend the body’s independence, a group of influential MPs have warned. The government revealed its overhaul proposals for the financial ombudsman service (FOS) on Tuesday in a bid to curb concerns it had behaved as a “quasi-regulator”. But a fresh letter to City minister Lucy Rigby [...]
Trust, not technology, is the real currency of financial services March 18, 2026 Fintechs are under pressure from outages, data leaks and rising fraud. True financial innovation should make systems safer, more transparent and more reliable for customers, says Nick Murray-Leslie Traditional banks and digital-first fintechs are locked in a battle for customers with much of the industry’s messaging still focused on AI, platforms and digital transformation. But [...]
Is the motor finance scandal making City banks trim the fat? March 18, 2026 The motor finance scandal is reshaping the banking sector, in this week’s column Samuel Norman takes a look at how lenders are responding. In the fallout of the multi-billion pound motor finance scandal, bank bosses are getting their house in order. The landmark saga, which began with the UK’s financial watchdog’s review into the market [...]
Oaknorth delays net zero goal as US expansion fuels lending boom March 17, 2026 UK fintech Oaknorth has slapped a ten year delay on its ambition to be a net zero bank as the firm’s expansion across the Atlantic picked up pace. The small business lender said it expects to meet net zero commitments by 2045, as opposed to previous guidance of 2035 set four years ago. Oaknorth said [...]
Close Brothers to axe fifth of jobs after motor finance ‘wipeout’ warning March 17, 2026 Close Brothers has warned it will cull as much as a fifth of its headcount as the bank continued its aggressive cost-cutting strategy following mounting losses linked to the motor finance scandal. The FTSE 250 bank said it would axe a staggering 600 full-time roles by the end of the 2027 financial, which represents around [...]
Close Brothers shares sink as infamous short-seller warns of motor finance ‘wipeout’ March 16, 2026 Shares in Close Brothers plummeted on Monday after a group notorious for short-selling warned the bank had “systematically misrepresented” its exposure to the motor finance scandal. The FTSE 250 bank nosedived as much as 12 per cent during afternoon trading after Viceroy Research, a group famed for its exposés of Wirecard and Home Reit, warned [...]
UK banking sector faces ‘AI-washing’ legal warning March 16, 2026 The UK’s banking sector is facing a new wave of regulatory AI warnings as bullish lenders race to rapidly beef up their tech capacity. Rosehana Amin, cyber and litigation partner at Clyde & Co LLP, warned banks may face a significant legal liability over misleading markets over their use of AI. Speaking at the City [...]
What happens now after Lloyds Bank’s tech disaster? March 13, 2026 Customers at Lloyds Banking Group were sent into panic on Thursday morning after a number of users opened their mobile app to find rogue transactions that did not belong to them. Screenshots quickly flooded social media with many of the bank’s 28m customers describing their horror at seeing up thousands of pounds of bizarre payments. [...]