THE BANK OF ENGLAND EXPECTS TO STRIP BACK REGULATIONS FOR SMALL LENDERS

The Bank of England (BoE) plans to introduce a more 'streamlined? regulatory approach for small lenders, Sam Woods, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, indicated in a speech at Mansion House last night (The Times). Mr Woods said that early responses to a discussion paper on regulatory reform had suggested an approach that modified the existing regime by removing complex requirements was preferred to a more limited but more demanding set of rules. Meanwhile, smaller banks will also be given more time to reach targets for debt issuance to improve their defences in the event of a crisis, the BoE said yesterday (Reuters).

SCAMMERS RECRUIT CHILDREN OF 14 AS MONEY MULES ONLINE

Children as young as 14 are being recruited as money mules in order to launder stolen funds while cryptocurrency wallets have also been used by criminals to move money out of banking system quickly, according to UK Finance's fraud report for the first half of 2021 published yesterday (BBC). More than four in ten cases of money mules involved victims aged 21 to 30, with the numbers rising by 76 per cent in the first six months of this year alone, from 8,107 to 14,289 (The Telegraph).

NEWS IN BRIEF

The chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has met senior staff from Google more often than he has met representatives from any financial services firm as the regulator works to tackle internet fraud due to rise of online scams (The Telegraph, pg.3).

1.5 million customers have been affected by energy firms collapsing under increased gas prices as two more suppliers ceased trading on Wednesday (BBC).

According to a monthly survey by Citigroup and YouGov, Britons are becoming increasingly worried about inflation. Figures show that inflation expectations for the next 12 months have jumped to 4.1 per cent from 3.1 per cent in August (The Times).

An increasing number of Federal Reserve officials expect there will be a rise in US interest rates next year (Financial Times).

LATEST BLOGS

Ahead of his ?fireside chat? session on Friday with Maya Lester QC at our Economic Crime Congress Neil Whiley, our Director, Sanctions Policy, reviews the UK autonomous sanctions regime and how it is settling in.