Banks must not use ‘digitisation’ as an excuse to close branches
Barely a month passes when Unite is not given notice that a bank is closing more local branches because customers are now increasingly banking online. In July 2016, Move your Money reported that:...
View ArticleDirty money is flooding into Britain – and the government is all talk
The latest revelations by The Guardian newspaper showing that major UK banks are involved in money laundering will hardly surprise anyone. Only last year, parliament was told that London is the money...
View ArticleCorbyn is right to go after the bankers. Here’s how he should start
Jeremy Corbyn has finally said what many people already knew. In an address directed at US investment bank Morgan Stanley last week, he said the financial sector is rife with “speculators and gamblers...
View ArticleTo survive, the next Labour government must be more Attlee than Allende
Labour has been trading vaguely menacing statements with Morgan Stanley, accusing the investment bank of being among the “speculators and gamblers who crashed our economy in 2008” after it warned its...
View ArticleChristmas is a huge burden on those in debt and without savings. But it...
It is a well held maxim that the best gift at Christmas is the gift of giving. We all seek to provide for those closest to us and at Christmas, as families and friends come together, this is often more...
View ArticleHere are 10 steps to reverse inequality in the UK in 2018
Inequitable distribution of income and wealth remains a recurring feature of UK life. Politicians huff and puff, but wealth continues to percolate upwards and fat cats continue to walk away with a...
View ArticleThis key part of Labour’s economic strategy just received a significant...
Labour’s plan for a National Investment Bank is at the heart of its economic strategy – significant and constant investment into every part of the UK. This would be about reshaping the British economy...
View ArticleBank branch closures are pushing the poorest communities into the hands of...
It’s results week for Britain’s banks. There will be news of high executive pay, big bonuses and fines for past bad behaviour, and the banks will want to project robust financial strength. But the...
View ArticleWhy didn’t UK regulators spot the rot at the heart of British banks?
Anyone doubting the inevitability of another banking crash needs look no further than the rotten business culture at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). In case anyone needs their memory refreshed, RBS was...
View ArticleBad bankers: Lehman Brothers throwing a 2008 crash party (and other feckless...
Believe it or not hundreds of bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crash are having a 10-year reunion in what’s set to be a huge ‘secret party’. Hundreds of former employees of the doomed...
View ArticleWe’ve given the banks almost total control over our day-to-day payments. What...
Writing in his memoirs, former Chancellor Alistair Darling revealed that at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Treasury officials feared the country was just two hours away from ‘cashpoints...
View ArticleRevealed: How Help to Buy has stuffed the pockets of housing giants
Rather than helping those struggling to buy a home, Help to Buy has mainly been a subsidy for property developers and the rich, according to an independent review of the scheme. Around three-fifths of...
View ArticleInquiry into financial services long overdue as UK suffers
The Shadow Chancellor has said the next Labour government would launch a public inquiry into Britain’s finance industry. It would inquire into and report misconduct in the finance industry, with the...
View ArticleOver 100 economists and leaders demand new Bank of England governor ‘leads...
More than 100 leading figures from across finance, civil society and academia have signed a letter calling on incoming Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey to accelerate efforts to green Britain’s...
View ArticleProf Prem Sikka: Don’t fall for the Tory ‘levelling up’ mantra, they’re still...
Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward The UK...
View ArticleTreasury selling NatWest off at loss is missed opportunity to ‘rejuvenate...
The government has just announced plans to sell more of its stake in NatWest, despite shares being worth less than half what they were when taxpayers bailed out the bank after the financial crisis....
View ArticlePrem Sikka: The $63.2 trillion shadow banking industry is likely to be site...
Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward. The...
View ArticleKwasi Kwarteng poised to scrap bankers’ bonus cap
The splash on the front page of the Financial Times today suggests that the new chancellor of the exchequer – Kwasi Kwarteng – is planning to scrap the cap on bankers’ bonuses. Introduced in 2014, the...
View ArticleThe mass closures of bank branches is having a devastating impact on communities
Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward. Last...
View ArticleNigel Farage banking row: Regulator finds no evidence of bank account...
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it has found no evidence showing banks have shut or denied accounts to customers based primarily on their political beliefs, according to a preliminary...
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