Croydon Council has hired a firm to investigate the leaking of a long-awaited report about the authority’s financial collapse in 2020, MyLondon reported. The Penn Report was completed 18 months ago and was written by Local Government Association’s Richard Penn. He looked into the financial mismanagement of the council before it was forced to issue a Section 114 notice, declaring effective bankruptcy. Despite being completed 18 months ago, the damning report has remained unpublished officially.
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A court in Skopje is examining the grounds for opening bankruptcy proceedings against North Macedonia-based construction company Beton Skopje at the request of company employees, the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia said on Tuesday, SeeNews reported. The court has appointed an interim bankruptcy administrator and prohibited the company from using its property without the approval of the administrator, the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia said in a statement published on its Facebook profile.
British finance minister Jeremy Hunt will seek to fill a 50 billion pound ($57 billion) hole in the country's public finances with around 30 billion pounds of spending cuts and 20 billion in tax rises, two government sources said on Monday, Reuters reported. Hunt is due to present a fiscal statement to parliament on Nov. 17, in a bid to restore financial market confidence after his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng's Sept. 23 tax cutting plan pushed sterling to a record low against the U.S. dollar and ultimately forced Liz Truss to resign as prime minister.
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Britain's banks were slow to start passing on increases in central bank interest rates to savers and consumers should consider switching to another UK lender, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday, Reuters reported. Banks have been quick to pass on higher interest rates to their mortgage customers, but savers are also keen to get better returns after years of record low central bank interest rates. "It was a slow start," FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi told parliament's Treasury Select Committee. "I would also encourage consumers to actively consider switching," Rathi said.
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German industry has called for a delay to a global minimum corporate tax by at least a year to 2025 to give companies more time to prepare given the current crisis, according to a position paper published by industry association BDI on Monday, Reuters reported. "The ambitious timetable of applying the minimum tax as early as 2024 is not realistic against the background of the enormous complexity of the associated new regulations," BDI said.
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The European Central Bank should keep raising interest rates, even at a reduced pace, until inflation excluding energy and food prices starts to ease, Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said, Bloomberg News reported. "As long as underlying inflation has not clearly peaked, we shouldn’t stop on rates,” the Bank of France Governor said in an interview with the Irish Times. Focusing on underlying components of price gauges could mean that policymakers keep raising rates well into next year, even if overall numbers start to decline when energy costs ease.
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The new head of Ukraine's central bank said on Monday the bank's main tasks remained the same, including strengthening the bank's independence, Reuters reported. "The obligations remain unchanged," Andriy Pyshnyi, who was appointed last month, told a news conference at which he said that Ukraine's banking system was stable.
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Improving transparency of 'non-banks' such as pension funds is a first step in applying lessons from turmoil in Britain's government bond market, Bank of England executive director Sarah Breeden said on Monday, Reuters reported. The central bank had to intervene in UK bond markets in September after the 1.6 trillion pound Liability Driven Investment funds (LDI) sector - used by pension funds to help ensure future payouts - struggled to meet collateral calls after the previous government's tax cut plans triggered a market rout.
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Growth in French mortgage lending slowed to the weakest pace this year in September as the European Central Bank’s rate hikes began to dent demand in the euro area’s second-largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Outstanding lending for home purchases grew 6.2% from a year earlier after rising 6.3% in August, and the Bank of France said early indicators show a further slowdown to 6% in October. The average interest rate for new housing loans is estimated at 1.79% in October -- the most expensive since 2016.
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German finance watchdog BaFin has told Deutsche Bank to take specific measures to improve efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing or face fines, the latest rebuke in regulatory proceedings against the bank that started in 2018, Reuters reported. BaFin said in a brief statement on its website late on Friday it had ordered the bank on Sept. 28 to take specific measures or else face fines, part of regulatory requirements that were imposed on the bank from September 2018. The regulator declined to give further details.
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