Friday newspaper round-up: Ad scams, Liberty Steel, GKN
A coalition of organisations including City of London police and the consumer body Which? is demanding the government make tech giants such as Google and Facebook legally responsible for fake and fraudulent adverts. In a joint letter to the home secretary, Priti Patel, the 17 organisations have urged ministers to force search engines and social media sites to vet all adverts they publish to protect the public from an “avalanche” of scams involving investments and other financial offers. - Guardian
A Brussels plot to lock the City out of European markets has backfired and harmed the finances of banks on the Continent, the boss of the UK's finance watchdog has said. Nikhil Rathi, head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said in a first major intervention that European Union lenders have lost market share because of resistance to a so-called equivalence deal that would have preserved ties with Britain. - Telegraph
Sanjeev Gupta is seeking a £200m lifeline that will allow his UK steelmaking operations to get back to full production. Liberty Steel is thrashing out details of a new working capital facility with US-based White Oak Global Advisors, a company which specialises in funding struggling businesses. The agreement is subject to due diligence checks by White Oak and would guarantee that the money is ring-fenced for Liberty’s UK operations, not funnelled into parent company GFG. - Telegraph
The global semiconductor shortage, which is hobbling some of the world’s leading carmakers, is trickling down into the supply chain as GKN warned that is being hit by the knock-on impact. Its warning came as Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, said that it is in “crisis mode” over the microchip shortages. VW warned that production could be significantly affected in the second half. - The Times