Monday newspaper round-up: BoE, Metro Bank, Northern Rock, KPMG
The Bank of England carried out due diligence three times on a firm that was subsequently revealed to have given paying clients early access to market-sensitive information without the Bank’s knowledge. Bank officials scrutinised the technology supplier Encoded Media three times between 2008, when it first became a technology supplier to the Bank, and 2019, the Guardian can reveal. However, Encoded’s status as a supplier to the Bank was only revoked following media inquiries in December. – Guardian
The chancellor is planning to scrap a £3bn tax relief that mainly benefits the wealthy in a bid to raise cash for an expected increase in public spending in the budget on 11 March. Rishi Sunak is expected to target entrepreneurs’ relief, a tax break which halves the capital gains tax paid when people sell their businesses. Under current rules, sellers pay only 10% on lifetime gains of up to £10m, comparedwith the 20% capital gains tax paid by higher-rate taxpayers. – Guardian
The private jets trips previously enjoyed by Metro Bank founder Vernon Hill are no longer going to fly with the bank’s board as the embattled lender fights to clean up its image. Sources said the chairman picked to replace Mr Hill, who has left the board after an accounting scandal triggered a lengthy sell-off and an emergency fundraising, will not enjoy the same perks as the American multi-millionaire. – Telegraph
Thousands of former Northern Rock shareholders are planning to restart their fight for compensation after the nationalised bank was left with £5 billion in surplus equity having repaid its government loans in full. Dennis Grainger, chairman of the Northern Rock Small Shareholder Action Group, said that he would be writing to the prime minister and to the chancellor to recover the excess profits made by the Treasury from the bank’s 2008 nationalisation. – The Times
About 500 staff and 20 partners are leaving KPMG in a £200 million leveraged buyout of its pension consulting business that will be announced today. The move involving the pensions division, which has advised a third of FTSE 100 companies in recent years, is being backed by Exponent, a private equity group. It was prompted by concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Pension trustee clients were unhappy in cases where either the pension fund or the sponsoring employer was also audited by KPMG. The division, to be renamed Isio, is understood to bring in £50 million to £100 million per year. – The Times