US Shutdown: Deadline Passes Without Deal

A bitterly divided Congress has plunged the US into a partial government shutdown – the first in almost two decades – that puts some 800,000 workers on unpaid leave and closes museums and national parks.

A deadline to fund government spending passed without agreement, and the shutdown went into force at 12.01am.

The Democrat-dominated Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives refused to back down in a clash over President Barack Obama's controversial healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

The deadlock means non-essential services, including some of America's most famous tourist attractions, are forced to close.

Workers classified as essential government employees, such as air traffic controllers or Border Patrol agents, continue to work.

Shortly after midnight, Mr Obama tweeted: "They actually did it. A group of Republicans in the House just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget."

The last shutdown took place under President Bill Clinton

It is the first US shutdown in 17 years, with analysts concerned about its potential impact on Wall Street and global markets.

Mr Obama warned of the possible risks to the economy, saying a shutdown would have "very real economic impact, right away".

David Cameron said: "It is a risk to the world economy if the US can't properly sort out its spending plans."

It is "a reminder to all of us that we need to have properly planned public-expenditure systems, properly planned tax, properly planned arrangements for getting our deficit down", the British Prime Minister said.

New York's Statue of Liberty and the National Zoo in Washington, as well as Yellowstone and other national parks, are among the tourist attractions the shutdown affects.

Republican opposition to the new healthcare law has been fierce

The Internal Revenue Service is suspending audits and taxpayer services, programmes for children are halted and up to 800,000 government employees are furloughed. More than a million others could be asked to work without pay.

The military's 1.4 million active duty personnel remain on duty and Mr Obama signed a law on Monday to ensure they would receive their pay on time.

The Pentagon is looking for ways to ways to expand the number of Defense Department civilians who are exempt from furloughs, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.

Mr Obama said he had been willing to negotiate, and placed the blame on Republicans, especially the hard-line Tea Party conservatives.

"One faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election," Mr Obama said.

"Keeping the people's government open is not a concession to me."

The Republicans had sought to tie passing the government spending bill to a delay in major elements of the Obamacare reform.

They insisted the fault rested with Democrats who had refused to negotiate any changes to the healthcare law.

House Speaker John Boehner, who spoke to the president before the midnight deadline, claimed "the Senate has continued to reject our offers".

Some of America's most iconic landmarks will be affected by the shutdown

Mr Obama's healthcare law was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2010, despite opposition by the Republican Party, especially from within the Tea Party.

Some elements of the scheme - which aims to provide greater access to affordable health insurance for poorer sections of society - take effect today despite the shutdown because they operate with money that is not subject to the budget wrangling.

Market reaction was muted following stock market falls across the board on Monday in anticipation of the shutdown.

Japan's Nikkei rose slightly while in Europe the FTSE 100 share index was flat in early trading following the previous day's 0.8% drop.

Dow Jones Futures pointed to a rise on opening in New York.

The dollar dropped slightly against the pound while there was also a move towards safe havens as gold values rose by up to 0.5%.

A protester voices her dissatisfaction outside the Capitol building

London-traded Brent Crude fell by 0.4% to $107 a barrel as the shutdown was seen as potentially damaging to US economic growth prospects.

Much of the shutdown's economic impact will depend on how long it takes politicians to find a solution.

The last shutdown, under the Clinton Administration, lasted 21 days between December 1995 and January 1996.

The political dysfunction at the Capitol also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7trn debt ceiling.

This would force the country to default on its obligations, dealing a potentially painful blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Google Defends Tax Affairs From New Scrutiny

Google's tax arrangements are under further scrutiny after it revealed paying £11.6m in corporation tax last year on UK sales said to be as high as £3.5bn.

The US technology firm, which has faced Parliamentary criticism amid suggestions of tax avoidance in the past, has consistently argued it operates within the law.

The company, which recently celebrated its 15th birthday and employs around 2,000 people in the UK, said it paid the Treasury £156.1m in total during its last financial year.

The Daily Telegraph, citing filings at Companies House, reported its UK revenues for 2012 at £506m but Reuters said its total UK sales stood at £3.5bn.

Google's tax affairs rose to prominence again in June when a report by MPs found Google had made around £11.5bn in revenue from the UK between 2006 and 2011 but paid just £10m in corporation tax.

The Public Accounts Committee called for an HMRC investigation amid evidence from apparent whistleblowers while a Reuters investigation alleged that Google's UK staff were responsible for sales rather than marketing as the company has always insisted.

A Google spokesperson said: "Like most multinationals, we pay the bulk of our £1.2bn corporate tax bill where our business originated, in our case the US.

"That's a rate of more than 19%, roughly what a UK-based company would pay.

"We're also a significant contributor to the UK economy- having created over 2,000 jobs.

"This year alone we've invested more than £300m in property, and tax related to our UK operations totalled more than £150m."

Reuters journalist Tom Bergin, who conducted the news service's investigation into Google's tax arrangements, told Sky News he believed it was an "incredibly low" effective corporate tax rate.

He said: "Google reports half of its profits in Bermuda where it pays no tax so that's why Google has one of the lowest tax rates on its non-US income among any company.

"Google pays around three percentage points tax on its overseas profit so it is true when it comes to paying tax one of the few countries where Google does pays tax is the US.

"Of course, that's because the US tax rules are considerably stronger than they are here in Europe and particularly in the UK.

"So Google cannot possibly avoid paying tax in the US but when it comes to Europe and the UK it is a different matter," he concluded.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Osborne Wants Fuel Duty Frozen Until 2015

Fuel duty will be frozen until 2015 if the money is available, George Osborne has told the Tory party conference.

The Chancellor revealed he aims to cancel the 2p-a-litre rise pencilled in by Labour for September 2014, continuing a freeze that has already lasted two-and-a-half years.

Aides claimed drivers would save £750m a year, leaving pump prices 20p-per-litre lower than under the plans inherited from Labour, if the cancellation goes ahead.

The promise is conditional on finding savings to pay for it and came as Mr Osborne declared that he wanted a future Conservative government to run a surplus.

Warning that the battle to rebuild the UK economy is not over, he effectively outlined a new fiscal rule designed to protect Britain from future crashes.

He said: "What is the alternative? To run a deficit for ever? To leave our children with our debts? To leave Britain perilously exposed to the next time the storm comes?

The Chancellor leaving the stage after his keynote address

"This crisis took us to the brink. If we don't reduce our debts, the next could push us over. Let us learn from the mistakes that got Britain into this mess.

"Let us vow: never again. This time we're going to run a surplus. This time we're going to fix the roof when the sun shines."

Mr Osborne told delegates a continued squeeze on welfare and spending even after the deficit is eliminated would also allow for tax cuts and vital investment.

In a deliberately sombre speech, he rejected accusations of complacency about the recovery, insisting there was "no feeling of a task completed or a victory won".

He said: "The sun has started to rise above the hill and the future looks brighter than it did just a few dark years ago".

But he also cautioned: "The battle to turn Britain around is not even close to being over and we are going to finish what we have started."

He accused Ed Miliband of making up Labour policy "on the back of a fag packet" and warned his energy price freeze plan was a "quick-fix con" that would stunt growth and cost jobs.

But in a move to show the Tories are also determined to help ease the cost of living, he said he was ready to take immediate action to help drivers.

"Provided we can find the savings to pay for it, I want to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this Parliament," he announced to loud applause.

George Osborne says "the sun has started to rise above the hill"

He added: "Conservatives don't just talk about being on the side of hard-working people. We show it day in day out in the policies we deliver."

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves described the move as "panicky" and claimed it was just another unfunded "aspiration".

The British Chambers of Commerce said it would be welcomed by small businesses, although its chief John Longworth warned: "They will want to ensure that ambition becomes a reality."

The address also confirmed tough new rules to make the long-term unemployed earn their benefits by doing full-time unpaid community work will come into force next year.

From April, people still without work after two years on the coalition's Work Programme will face three options if they want to remain on the dole.

They will either have to do community work such as litter picking, visit a job centre every day or take part in compulsory training to tackle problems like illiteracy.

Those who break the rules of the new Help-to-Work scheme, for example by failing to turn up without a good reason, could lose their benefit for four weeks.

A second offence would see them lose it for three months.

The scheme, devised by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, will cost around £300m - with the money likely to be found from departmental underspends.

Critics claimed the Government scheme would treat the unemployed more harshly than criminals and was just a "rehash" of plans that had already failed.

Joanna Long, from the Boycott Workfare campaign, said: "It's bad news for people who will be forced to work at far below the minimum wage - and it's terrible news for the people whose jobs they will be replacing."

Graeme Cooke, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, added that the measures would probably affect only one in 20 people on the dole and warned it needed careful planning.

"The key issue is how such schemes are designed. If they give people real experience of work and the practical employability habits that go with it, they can help people be more attractive to prospective employers," he said.

"But if it is pitched as a punishment where people do menial tasks, it risks acting as a signal to employers that these are people not to employ."

But Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, welcomed the move.

"There is plenty of international evidence from countries such as Australia, Canada and the US that this type of scheme is not only fairer on those footing the welfare bill, but also gets people back into work," he said.

Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors, hailed the "bold ambition" of returning Britain to a surplus but also called for an explicit commitment to lower taxes.

Meanwhile, Ms Reeves claimed "nobody will believe a word" Mr Osborne says about capital spending because he had already broken his pledge to balance the books by 2015.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Foreign Banks Warn Over Bonus Cap Exodus

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Some of the biggest foreign banks operating in the UK have warned London's main banking watchdog that a European cap on bonuses would lead to an overseas exodus of their senior managers.

Sky News understands that a number of US and other banks headquartered outside the European Union have warned the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) that the imposition of an enforced pay ratio has already prompted senior executives to demand a relocation away from London.

Officials say that the warnings have prompted serious alarm at the PRA, which is concerned that major banks could be denuded of much of the senior management expertise required to operate under the regulator's aegis.

News of the overseas banks' warnings comes just days after Sky News revealed that the Chancellor, George Osborne, was taking legal action at the European Court of Justice to try to overturn the bonus cap.

Despite the challenge, banks operating in London will be forced to adopt the new rules from next year pending its outcome.

The PRA has already made clear its opposition to moves to restrict bonuses to - at most - 200% of base salaries, arguing that it risks increasing instability in the banking system by driving up fixed costs.

British-based lenders have also criticised the cap, saying that they will have little choice but to inflate basic pay if they are to compete with rivals unaffected by the new restrictions.

George Osborne is taking legal action to try to overturn the bonus cap

Andrew Bailey, the PRA's chief executive, said earlier this year that the cap would "reduce the discipline in the system but it won't reduce overall remuneration" and warned that it "will institute an unhelpful culture of banks spending their time finding ways to get around the rules".

Without a successful legal challenge, UK regulators have little scope to overturn or ignore the cap despite the fact that regulators and many Westminster-based politicians agree that it will be potentially counter-productive.

A PRA consultation paper on the latest European Capital Requirements Directive will be published in the coming weeks.

Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC, has paved the way for Europe's biggest lender to increase salaries in time for the introduction of the new ceiling.

Last week, a Treasury spokesman said the new rules would "make banks themselves riskier rather than safer [and] may undermine responsibility in the banking system rather than promote it".

"Regulation of pay in this manner goes beyond what is permitted in the EU Treaty. That's why we are challenging these rules in the European Court, to ensure the legislation respects the EU Treaty and actually achieves what it's meant to: a more stable banking system that serves the economy, businesses and consumers."

The PRA declined to comment on its discussions with overseas banks on the issue.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Minimum Wage Rises As Rogue Firms Targeted

Employers who fail to pay the statutory minimum wage face being named and shamed from today as the latest increases come into effect.

The adult rate has risen by 12p an hour to £6.31 and by 5p to £5.03 an hour for 18 to 20-year-olds.

The minimum for 16 and 17-year-olds increased by 4p to £3.72 while the apprentice rate goes up by 3p to £2.68.

The Government estimates that 890,000 people will receive a pay rise because of the changes.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said the Low Pay Commission recommended a rate which supported low paid workers without damaging their chances of getting a job.

"As signs of an economic recovery start to emerge, we need to do more to make sure that the benefits of growth are shared fairly across the board.

"That is why in addition to their ongoing annual remit, I am asking them (the commission) to extend their expertise to help the Government and business understand how we can deal with the issue of low wages in the economy.

In particular I have asked them to look at what economic conditions would be needed to allow the national minimum wage to rise in the future by more than current conditions allow," he said.

Unions have demanded the proceeds of growth are shared with workers.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Years of below-inflation rises mean that the UK's lowest-paid workers are now facing an historic living standards crisis.

"As the recovery takes hold we will need to see far bigger increases to the minimum wage to ensure that ordinary people and not just the super rich benefit from economic growth.

"This will need more than any one-off pre-election boost - we will need sustained stronger rises if the real value of the minimum wage is to be restored."

The Resolution Foundation think-tank said the minimum wage will be falling in real terms for the fifth year in a row despite the increase, because it is not keeping pace with rising prices.

Campaigners called for more companies and organisations to pay a so-called living wage, currently set at £7.45 an hour for the UK and £8.55 for London.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

RBS Boss McEwan To Put Customers First

A New Zealander has taken on the toughest job in British banking today - chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Ross McEwan steps up to the main role after running the retail banking side of RBS for a year.

He replaces Stephen Hester who led the bank for five turbulent years following the departure of his disgraced predecessor Fred Goodwin and the lender's near collapse.

Mr McEwan will be paid £1m a year plus £350,000 in lieu of a pension.

As he began work today, he was conducting a series of meetings with staff and greeting customers - his priority on taking charge.

Mr McEwan says he wants to put customers first

In a message to workers, Mr McEwan said: "It's clear to me that we have a greater obligation than any other bank to build a business that supports its customers.

"We were saved by the Government five years ago because of how important we are to the everyday economy of the UK.

"I want RBS to stand firmly behind its customers with the explicit goal of helping them succeed. That includes an increase in our lending. We must do everything possible to support the recovery and future growth of the UK."

He was welcomed to the role by RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton.

He said: "Ross is a customer banker through and through and is determined to transform the bank into a real asset for the UK economy."

Mr McEwan's appointment was announced after a reported rift between Mr Hester and the Chancellor George Osborne, said to be over the bank's future structure.

Mr Hester had taken over in November 2008 in the midst of a calamitous period which saw it rescued by the Government, which still holds an 80% stake.

Its collapse followed the disastrous 2007 takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro in a £49bn deal that weakened its capital position and left it highly vulnerable to the looming credit crunch.

Mr Hester was credited with turning the bank around amid tens of thousands of job cuts.

Non-core assets worth more than £200bn, including a chain of 900 pubs and an aircraft leasing business, were sold off.

RBS also began to sell off insurer Direct Line and last week it announced a £600m deal to hive off 314 bank branches under the revived Williams & Glyn's brand.

The turnaround plan helped the bank swing back out of the red with pre-tax profits of £1.4bn in its last half year.

But it has not been an easy path for the bank, which suffered a PR disaster following a series of IT failures which prevented customers managing their finances and prompted a big extra spend on compensation and system improvements.

Mr McEwan's appointment was confirmed in August amid Government revelations that RBS was still a long way from being returned to private hands.

He will be presiding over a bank that now has a greater focus on business lending as opposed to investment banking.

At the weekend, Mr McEwan welcomed the announcement that the Help-to-Buy scheme was being brought forward, as RBS announced that it would introduce a range of 95% loan-to-value mortgages under the scheme.

Before RBS, he was group executive for retail banking services at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

He is married with two children and his interests include waterskiing, cycling, reading and spending time with his family.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyber Crime: Banks Ordered To Bolster Defences

The Bank of England is drawing up a "concrete plan" to help protect the UK's banking system from the mounting threat of cyber attack.

The development emerged in minutes of last month's meeting of the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which is charged with safeguarding financial stability.

The FPC's move was confirmed following two recent attacks on UK banks in which Barclays and Santander branches were allegedly targeted.

It cautioned there were a number of "potential vulnerabilities" in the banking system and said it wanted banks and other institutions - including the Bank of England - to draw up plans for protection as a priority.

The UK's banking sector is particularly at risk due to old and complex IT systems, as well as a high degree of interconnectedness and its reliance on centralised infrastructure, such as payment systems and clearing houses.

Treasury officials are already working on plans to assess, test and improve the system's resilience to cyber attacks.

But the minutes of the meeting of the FPC, which is chaired by Bank governor Mark Carney, said there now needed to be a "concrete plan" in place by the end of the first quarter of 2014, with a progress report before the end of this year.

Details of the FPC's worries come just days after the Ministry of Defence announced it was creating a new Joint Cyber Reserve Unit to help defend national security as it battles against hundreds of thousands of attacks against secure government sites each year.

The Bank also separately today published plans on how to stress test banks each year, proposing to initially limit the exercise to the eight largest players - HSBC, Barclays, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, Santander, Nationwide Building Society and Co-operative Bank.

It has launched a consultation on the stress tests, with a deadline for feedback set for January 10 next year.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Boris Backs Jamie Oliver's Work Ethic Concerns

Boris Johnson has risked a fresh row by backing celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's claim that migrant workers work harder than Britons.

The Mayor of London, speaking at the Tory Party conference, called for action to instil a work ethic in young British workers who are unwilling to do jobs they consider "menial".

He acknowledged he might get into trouble by agreeing Oliver "had a point" when he suggested eastern Europeans were more prepared to put in the long hours needed for restaurant work.

Mr Johnson told Tory activists: "Now I can see looks of apoplexy here ... and I can see looks of sad acknowledgement as well and I can see a vague depressed look of recognition.

Controversial: TV chef Jamie Oliver

"I know and you know that there are millions of British kids and young people who are as dynamic and go-getting as any millionaire masterchef.

"But my question to you is what if Jamie has a point? What if he has half a point or even a quarter of a point? Do you think he does?

"He is onto something, he may have phrased it in a provocative way but he was saying something that I think resonates, right?

"If he has a point, we need to think about the possible origins of that difference in motivation that he claims to detect. We need to consider what we politicians are doing about it, don't we?

The Mayor said welfare dependency, failures in education and low-esteem had to be tackled so that Britons can fulfil their "vast and latent" potential.

Mr Johnson said Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Education Secretary Michael Gove were both working to improve Britons' motivation to work.

But he also urged young people not to dismiss certain jobs as beneath them but to see them as "stepping stones" to greater things.

"I'm conscious that I'm speaking very frankly about this issue, and probably got myself into trouble," he told delegates.

His comments came as David Cameron signalled the high-profile politician could return to Parliament as an MP before his mayoral term ends in 2016.

The Prime Minister confirmed he had discussed the idea with Mr Johnson, although aides scotched the idea of him standing in a safe Tory seat in 2015.

Mr Cameron said: "My message to him is 'You're a brilliant Mayor of London, you've done a great job, you've got a lot more to give to public life, and it would be great to have you back in the House of Commons at some stage, contributing to public life'.

"But that's up to him, but I'll certainly be giving him a warm welcome."

Asked if he could foresee his ex-Eton schoolmate's comeback by 2015, he added: "Absolutely - but that's a matter for him. I think he needs to think about - it's his plan.

"All I know that he's a massive asset to the country, a massive asset to the Conservative Party. We could make a very strong team together, we do today."

The Mayor renewed speculation about his leadership ambitions over the weekend by saying the debate on intervention in Syria had fuelled a desire to be back in the Commons.

He repeatedly declined to rule out the possibility of serving as a MP at the same time as completing his term as mayor.

Speculation that he might throw his hat into the ring to replace Richard Ottaway in Croydon South were fuelled after he plugged the town in a rally speech on Monday night.

But a spokesman for the Mayor told the Press Association news agency that he was not putting his name forward for the seat.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

GTA V: Rockstar Warns Of 'Online Problems'

Grand Theft Auto V fans looking forward to the multiplayer version of the game could end up experiencing glitches and connection problems.

The UK developer of the hit game, Rockstar North, said "plenty of issues are bound to occur" and it was "working around the clock to buy and add more servers" to support Grand Theft Auto Online.

Some users - posting shortly after Tuesday's launch - said they were already having problems connecting.

Cal tweeted: "GTA V online is a waste of time at the minute. Absolute server overload!! Going to have to make do with reality."

The online game will let up 16 players team up

Tyler Deshaun ‏added: "Am I the only one that can't get online on GTA V right now?? Server is terrible."

Rockstar tweeted: "For those trying to get into GTA Online today, please bear w/ us on some day one tech connection issues that we're working to stabilize asap".

Sales of GTA V are estimated to have easily topped 10 million since its launch on September 17 - more than expected. It also broke sales records by pulling in £496m ($800m) in just 24 hours.

But the online feature could suffer as a result of its own success as gamers rush to team up with one another.

In a blog post ahead of launch, Rockstar said: "One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the ... additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point."

The game made nearly $1bn in its first day - a record for a game or film

The Edinburgh-based company will be hoping to avoid the backlash Electronic Arts received over its botched SimCity launch in March, when many gamers reported long delays logging on to the internet to play, as well as crashes.

SimCity developer Maxis later admitted it had been "dumb" not to anticipate the level of demand.

Rockstar also warned that potentially-amusing in-game "crashes, glitches, crazy bugs" would likely be discovered in the first few weeks of online GTA V.

As it noted, such teething troubles are not uncommon and it wants gamers to provide feedback so they can be ironed out.

GTA V Online will let up to 16 players team up over the internet to carry out heists or indulge in a spot of racing around the Southern California landscape. The multiplayer game narrative is set a few months before the storyline in the single-player mode.

Many players on the Rockstar blog are already posting invitations for other gamers to join their "crews".

The 18-rated guns and gangsters game - which had a £170m ($274m) budget - has been widely praised by critics and the public.

Games website IGN called it a "masterpiece", and one of the greatest video games ever made.

Edge magazine called it a "remarkable achievement" that sent a message to the rest of the industry.

However, the game has also reignited concerns among some people about video game violence and the portrayal of women.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Barclays Customer Service Chief Quits

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Barclays is parting company with the executive responsible for improving service standards just weeks after a survey ranked it as the worst-performing bank in Britain.

Sky News understands that Paul Maddox, managing director of customer service, is to leave Barclays in the coming weeks after roughly three years in the role.

A spokesman said Mr Maddox was leaving the bank "to pursue a role outside Barclays", saying that he had "accomplished a great deal". He denied a suggestion made by several industry sources that he was being pushed out as it attempts to get a grip on a pandemic of customer complaints.

Mr Maddox had become an increasingly visible figure at Barclays, although he did not sit on the executive committee for its retail and business banking operations. Reporting to Matt Hammerstein, a former chief of staff to the ex-Barclays chief executive John Varley, his replacement will be Bob Cliff, who will assume the title of managing director for complaints management.

In August, Barclays said that customer complaints during the first half of the year had fallen 16% to 381,000. If complaints about payment protection insurance were excluded, the number came down by 46% to 91,215.

While the improved performance was highlighted by Barclays executives at the bank's half-year results, and enormous complaints volumes continue to blight the wider industry, senior managers concede that positioning it as "the go-to bank" is undermined by continuing customer dissatisfaction.

Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of retail and business banking, said in August that the improved figures did not deflect from the fact that "this is no time for self-congratulation", and pledged to publish complaints data on a quarterly basis.

Last month, the campaign group Move Your Money ranked Barclays as the lowest of 70 lenders for honesty and customer service.

A Barclays spokesman disputed the robustness of the survey, arguing that it was not based on widespread customer opinion.

The bank, which is led by Antony Jenkins, recently unveiled an advertising campaign dubbed 'Your Bank', in which it asks customers for ideas about how to improve the quality of Barclays' service.

Industry analysts believe the advent of a new regime allowing customers to move current accounts within seven working days will accelerate the defection of customers from banks with poor service. An exodus of deposits could have implications for banks' cost of financing their operations if they are obliged to access more wholesale markets funding.

Banks have been deluged with millions of claims for payment protection insurance compensation, with several of the biggest high street lenders understood to be the subject of probes by the City watchdog's enforcement division.

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More