Rachel Reeves to pledge Thatcher-style ‘Big Bang’ for City in Mansion House speech July 13, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to pledge a Thatcher-esque “Big Bang” in the City next week as part of her much-awaited Mansion House speech. Reeves is expected to tell senior banking figures to ditch New York and Paris in favour of London or Leeds amid a commitment to slash burdensome regulation. A Treasury source told the [...]
Fintechs lobby Rachel Reeves for tax incentives to boost listings July 9, 2025 Top British fintech firms have urged Rachel Reeves to provide incentives to list in London or risk losing them to rival markets overseas. Executives from Clearbank, Atom, Revolut and Zilch met the Chancellor on Wednesday morning ahead of the Treasury’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, in which fintech is expected to play a starring [...]
Labour versus the bond markets, businesses and ballots July 3, 2025 Birthdays aren’t best celebrated on a hangover but Labour’s senior leaders will be waking up with a painful headache this morning after haemorrhaging support from both bond markets and backbenchers. As dozens of Labour MPs discovered the level of influence they held over whips in parliament, unsympathetic bond traders flexed their own powers as medium-term [...]
Rachel Reeves at risk of becoming shortest-serving Labour Chancellor July 2, 2025 Rachel Reeves is at risk of becoming the shortest-serving Labour Chancellor in history after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declined to give her a public show of support. The PM was facing questions at Prime Minister’s Questions today over his handling of a welfare reform package which has been stripped of key elements to limit [...]
Motor finance drags FOS complaints to highest since PPI scandal July 2, 2025 The motor finance row has dragged complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to the highest level since the PPI scandal. Consumers lodged 305,726 complaints with the FOS in the year ending March 31 2025, which edged towards highs of 388,392 in year ending March 2019. Complaints regarding motor finance led the spike at 73,328. [...]
Welfare: Starmer’s authority shattered as Reeves faces £5bn headache July 2, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has suffered a devastating hit to his authority whilst a £5bn spending headache looms for Rachel Reeves following the government’s u-turn to avoid a catastrophic defeat of its welfare bill. Just days away from his one year anniversary in Downing Street, the PM faced the most substantial backbench rebellion of his premiership [...]
National Wealth Fund boss calls for public finance consolidation July 1, 2025 The boss of Labour’s National Wealth Fund has urged the government to remain open to consolidation of public finance institutions in a bid to ease confusion for the private sector. In a hearing on Tuesday, the chief executive of the National Wealth Fund (NWF) John Flint told MPs he would “encourage” the Treasury “not to [...]
City minister doubles down on green finance as firms turn sour June 30, 2025 The City minister has reaffirmed the government’s ambition for a green transition across the financial services sector, despite the industry pivoting on climate priorities. Speaking at City Week on Monday, Emma Reynolds said: “The UK has a world leading financial and related professional services ecosystem and the research that is needed to integrate sustainable finance.” [...]
Reeves told Lifetime ISAs rules are ‘nonsensical’ and costing savers June 30, 2025 Lifetime ISAs require deep reform, as strict rules on cash withdrawals mean customers are left with less money than they initially deposited, leading Britons to make worse investment decisions, while the government sets aside too much spending for bonuses, senior MPs have told Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Reeves is a fortnight away from her flagship Mansion [...]
Ex LSEG boss slams London stock market ‘gimmicks’ June 29, 2025 The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG)’s former boss Xavier Rolet has blasted stewards of UK capital markets for focussing on “gimmicks and quick headline-grabbing fixes” to liquidity levels. Officials at the London Stock Exchange and at the Treasury have mooted possible reforms to savings as part of a bid to revive capital markets. London Stock [...]