Lloyds ‘assessing’ impact of landmark court ruling on car loans

Lloyds Banking Group has said it is assessing the potential impact of a landmark court ruling over car finance mis-selling on Friday, which may lead to lenders paying out billions of pounds in compensation to borrowers.The bank, which is the most exposed among high street lenders and holds about £15bn in car loans through its Black Horse division, stopped short of offering any guidance on how much it may be forced to put aside to handle potential payouts. However, Lloyds said it would update the market “if and as appropriate”.The court of appeal ruled in favour of three borrowers on Friday, saying it was unlawful for lenders to have paid a commission to car dealers without the borrowers’ knowledge.The test case involved borrowers of two other car loan providers – FirstRand Bank and Close Brothers – and concluded that consumers needed to know all the material facts that could affect their borrowing decision including the total commission to dealers, and how it was calculated, in order to be able to consent to the loan

Volkswagen to shut three factories, axe jobs and cut pay by 10%, says union

The German carmaker Volkswagen is planning to shut at least three factories in its home country, lay off thousands of workers and cut pay by 10%, according to the company’s union.The deeper-than-expected cuts come as the company faces weak sales and slow expansion in the electric vehicle (EV) sector amid tough competition from Chinese manufacturers.“The board wants to close at least three factories in Germany,” the works council chief, Daniela Cavallo, told employees at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg on Monday. Its remaining manufacturing sites will reduce capacity, she said, citing information provided by management.As Europe’s top economy suffers a crisis in manufacturing and fears of mass unemployment, VW is aiming for a fundamental restructuring to cut costs

Wise boss fined £350,000 for not telling FCA he had failed to pay tax

The founder of the money transfer service Wise has been fined £350,000 for failing to inform the City regulator that he had failed to pay his taxes.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Monday that the Wise chief executive, Kristo Käärmann, had failed to notify it of a fine from HM Revenue and Customs that resulted in his appearance on a public “name and shame” list of people who had deliberately defaulted on tax payments – alongside a host of takeaway restaurants and sole traders.The ruling puts an end to several years of repercussions from a 2017 share sale by Käärmann that netted him $10m, but also led to a series of regulatory difficulties.The idea for Wise, formerly TransferWise, started when Käärmann was working in London for an accountancy company and faced rip-off fees to transfer his bonus payment to his native Estonia. He came to an arrangement with an acquaintance, Taavet Hinrikus, to match transactions in accounts on both countries, avoiding the steep bank fees

Reeves’s radical change to fiscal rules could go further – New Zealand shows how

Rachel Reeves will this week change the way the UK government’s debt rules are calculated to unlock billions of pounds in additional headroom for spending on long-term infrastructure projects.In what could be the most radical step in Labour’s first budget since 2010, the chancellor confirmed the decision while at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Washington DC last week, aiming to soothe any jitters in the bond markets by announcing it in front of the global economic establishment.The rationale for the budget sneak peak in Washington was clear. The IMF has become an advocate of governments borrowing for investment in recent years. It also backs debt rules that take into account not just the cost of borrowing but also the benefits

Cushy Qantas perks in Chairman’s Lounge book shine spotlight on travel habits of Albanese and others

The cosy relationships between politicians and big business are again under scrutiny, with allegations Anthony Albanese used his personal connections to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce to directly request free upgrades on international and domestic flights.The claims, detailed in a new book from journalist Joe Aston, have drawn attention to the cushy perks enjoyed by nearly all politicians, including complimentary membership to the exclusive Qantas chairman’s lounge.Peter Dutton called the revelations “strange”. But disclosure forms show the vast majority of politicians from all sides, as well as public servants leading the most powerful government departments, have accepted money-can’t-buy memberships to the luxury Qantas airport lounges – reportedly once described by Joyce as “the most exclusive club in the country”.The Albanese revelations surfaced in The Chairman’s Lounge, a book by former Australian Financial Review columnist Aston

Reeves urged not to cut Sellafield funds amid concern at rise in ‘near misses’

Rachel Reeves has been urged not to carry out mooted funding cuts for nuclear sites including Sellafield amid safety concerns, as it emerged that the number of incidents where workers narrowly avoided harm had increased at the Cumbrian site.The GMB union has written to Reeves, the chancellor, before Wednesday’s budget to raise safety concerns after rumours emerged that the budget for the taxpayer-owned Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) could be reduced, which could result in cuts at nuclear sites including Sellafield and Dounreay in Scotland.In the letter to Reeves, seen by the Guardian, union leaders warned that a safety incident at Sellafield, Europe’s most hazardous industrial site, would “have devastating consequences far beyond the immediate community”. The NDA had a budget of £4bn in the last financial year.The warning came as recently released annual accounts for the NDA showed “near misses” at Sellafield had risen in the last financial year, and an “international nuclear event-scale” incident had occurred at the site, which is a vast dump for nuclear waste and also the world’s largest store of plutonium