Daily Mail - 17.08.2019

Trading is

delayed by

gremlins on

the Footsie

IS Block’s short-selling hedge

fund above reproach? Probably

not. But its sustained attack on

legal firm Burford Capital has

nonetheless been enlightening

and entertaining in equal meas-

ure. At the very least, Block has

exposed shortcomings in how

Burford is run. It makes you won-

der why the firm’s City sharehold-

ers failed to spot the problems.

HERO...

... AND ZERO

THERE’S a lot to like

about insurer Admiral,

particularly its gener-

ous bonuses for staff.

But that does not justify its rapa-

cious approach to customers

who are charged extra to pay in

monthly instalments. Admiral

made £40m from the practice in

the first half of this year. Stevens

should cut out the extra costs.

Carson Block

Fo u n d e r,

Muddy Waters

David Stevens

Admiral chief executive

Eurozone trade slump

ASOS’s profits could tumble by

more than a third if the Govern-

ment brings in an online sales

tax, according to UBS analysts.

The bank’s experts think the

online fashion retailer and Ama-

zon would be the two biggest los-

ers if the tax is introduced.

Pressure is mounting on the

Government to level the playing

field between online and High

Street retailers, as bricks-and-

mortar shops are more vulnera-

ble to soaring business rates.

The Daily Mail’s Save the High

Street campaign has called for

reform of the business rates sys-

tem, highlighting how the levies

have left many retailers crippled.

UBS analysts said in a report:

‘While there are clearly other pri-

orities for the Government, there

seems to be more acceptance

that change is required, if only to

protect future tax receipts as

store closures accelerate.’

Business rates are charged on

commercial properties, meaning

retailers with physical stores in

prime High Street locations are

much harder hit.

UBS predicts the Government

may impose a 2pc levy on online

non-food sales. This would bring

in an extra £200m every year for

the Treasury, but would hit Asos’s

profits by 36pc and cost Amazon’s

UK business £160m per year.

Sales tax threat to Asos

TRADING between eurozone
countries has suffered its steep-
est slowdown in more than six
years, raising fresh fears for the
monetary union.
The value of trade between
the 19 countries which use the
euro slid by 6.6pc in June com-
pared to the same time last year

• the worst since March 2013.
  Eurozone countries exported
  £172bn of goods to the rest of
  the world while importing
  £153bn, according to data from
  Eurostat, part of the European
  Commission. But between them,
  they only traded £145bn. A con-

tinued slowdown could put a

strain on relations between

countries in the bloc, and

imperil their economies.

Angel Talavera, an economist

at global forecaster Oxford Eco-

nomics, said it was ‘a serious

reason for concern and it threat-

ens to become a vicious cycle’.

Trade within the EU, which also

includes the likes of the UK and

Poland which do not use the

euro, was down by 4.4pc to

£149bn. The UK exports 4pc more

to states outside the EU, but

imported 3.2pc less from out-

side the EU than a year earlier.

City Editor: Alex Brummer http://www.thisismoney.co.uk Business Editor: Ruth Sunderland

City Finance

5,000

British Steel jobs in the balance

as Turkish military pension

fund eyes the business

TRADERS were left in limbo after a

technical glitch meant the FTSE

opened more than an hour and a

half late yesterday.

The market normally opens at

8am. But investors were unable to

buy or sell stocks in companies

listed on the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250

until 9.40am.

This included some of Britain’s

best-known firms such as Barclays,

Tesco, Aviva and Shell. Smaller

companies, including those listed

on AIM, weren’t hit and were

trading normally.

Friday tends to be a quieter day,

and August a quieter month, when

it comes to trading.

But the delay came at the end of

a roller-coaster week for global

stocks, when a seeming relaxa-

tion in US-China trade tensions on

Tuesday sent the global markets

sharply higher, before they

plunged the next day when a slew

of economic data pointed towards

another global recession.

There have been no indications

that the glitch was the result of a

cyber attack.

The London Stock Exchange

Group, which is the company that

owns and operates the exchange,

said: ‘London Stock Exchange

experienced a technical software

issue this morning that affected

trading in certain securities, includ-

ing FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 stocks.

by Francesca Washtell

ANOTHER

banker is let

off the hook

by Lucy White

A SENIOR Barclays executive

accused of covering up a ‘cul-

ture of fear’ at the bank will be

allowed to continue working in
the financial services industry.
Andrew Tinney quit the bank after
being accused of concealing an
explosive dossier into working con-
ditions within its wealth division.
It was alleged that Tinney had deliber-
ately hidden the existence of the report
from senior managers at the lender, and
he was initially banned for life by the
Financial Conduct Authority watchdog
before appealing the decision.
An Upper Tribunal judge found yes-
terday that Tinney had acted reck-
lessly rather than maliciously when he
drafted a briefing note for top Barclays
bosses which made no mention of the
damning dossier.
It reversed his lifetime ban and said
that a public reprimand was sufficient
punishment for the 53-year-old’s lapse

• even though he was found guilty of
  failing to act with integrity.
  Mark Steward, executive director of
  enforcement and market oversight at
  the FCA, said: ‘Senior management
  must be held to high standards of
  integrity which is the fundamental cor-
  nerstone of good conduct in trusted
  markets. Mr Tinney failed to act with
  integrity in one telling instance which
  is enough to justify this censure.’
  The original report into working cul-
  ture, specifically at Barclays Wealth’s
  American branch, was commissioned
  by Tinney while he was serving as chief
  operating officer at the private invest-
  ments division.
  Written by consultancy Genesis Ven-
  tures, it found that management had
  ‘created a culture of dominance and
  fear’ which was ‘high risk and actively
  hostile to compliance, and ruled with an
  iron fist to remove any intervention from
  those who speak up in opposition’.
  Tinney (pictured) was the first
  recipient of this document but did
  not circulate it widely. A whistleblow-
  ing email was sent to senior manage-
  ment at the bank claiming a dossier
  about Barclays Wealth’s toxic culture
  was being hushed up. Tinney was
  asked to draft a briefing note for
  bosses in response but did not
  mention the Genesis report.
  When claims of a cover-up first
  emerged, the banker said he had
  shredded the study at his £5m
  mansion in Surrey in an effort to
  prevent it ever getting out.
  However, he later said he had
  been mistaken, and found the dos-
  sier among his papers at home.
  The Upper Tribunal also found
  that Tinney had made a mislead-
  ing statement to his professional
  regulator, the Institute of Char-
  tered Accountants in England

and Wales, concerning the nature

of his conduct. In this statement,

he appeared to blame someone

else for the fact that the report

had never been entered onto Bar-

clays’ computer systems.

He claimed a senior lawyer had

said uploading the dossier could

leave the bank open to lawsuits

from people named and shamed

in the report, a statement which

was later found to be untrue.

Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, co-

chairman of the Parliamentary

group on fair business banking,

blasted the decision. ‘While the

regulatory environment leads

people to believe there’s a signifi-

cant chance they will face no

action, then people will continue

to do the wrong thing,’ he said.

But a spokesman for Tinney

said the FCA went after the

wrong person, and that the

former banker was delighted the

Upper Tribunal recognised he did

not mislead the watchdog.

Tinney’s lawyer Harvey Knight

said: ‘Put bluntly, Mr Tinney is

free to work again in the financial

services industry in any role. This

is telling. The FCA has serious

questions to answer about why it

decided to pursue this case.’

Contrary to claims by the FCA,

Tinney did not deliberately or

recklessly make false or mislead-

ing statements about the exist-

ence of the document in repre-

sentations to the New York

Federal Reserve Bank, the tribu-

nal added.

(^) Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019
Overturned,
lifetime ban
for Barclays
boss who
kept silent
about secret
report on
‘toxic’ culture
at the lender
Page 106