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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is expected to scale back its controversial plan to publicly “name and shame” companies under investigation, according to a Reuters report citing legal sources who declined to be named.
The regulator‘s initial proposal, published in February, aimed to enhance transparency and deter misconduct by announcing investigations, but critics — including trade bodies, legal professionals and UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt — argued the move could unfairly damage companies and harm London’s financial competitiveness.
Reuters sources said the FCA’s co-head of enforcement, Therese Chambers, began backtracking on the proposal to publicly name companies under investigation during meetings with their corporate clients in March.
She reportedly made concessions, such as extending the notice period before announcing an investigation and is said to be considering a looser “public interest test” for naming companies. Despite these changes, lawyers argue more is needed, including a route to appeal.
“We have listened carefully and we’re considering all the feedback that we’ve received as we decide on next steps,” an FCA spokesperson told Reuters.
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Spanish bank BBVA is raising new capital to support its €12bn hostile takeover bid for rival Sabadell, beginning with the sale of €750mn in additional tier 1 — or AT1 — bonds.
The AT1 sale comes as BBVA plans to seek shareholder approval on July 5 to issue up to 1.126bn new shares to finance the Sabadell deal, a move that would raise more than €10bn from investors at the current share price.
The capital raise is complicated by revived corporate espionage allegations against BBVA. A Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor has called for the bank to stand trial over claims it hired a private detective agency linked to a former top police commissioner for corporate espionage. An investigating judge will now decide if BBVA should face criminal charges.
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The Australian government has introduced legislation requiring “buy now, pay later” companies to conduct credit checks on borrowers to make sure they can afford the service, aligning them with other consumer credit products.
The proposed laws will require BNPL providers such as Afterpay, Zip and Klarna to obtain an Australian credit licence, bringing them under the oversight of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Until now, BNPL services operating in the country have been largely unregulated, avoiding rules that apply to credit card providers.
“If it looks and acts like credit, then it should be regulated as such,” said the country's minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, in a statement.
Australian consumers hold around 7mn active BNPL accounts with an average transaction amount of A$136 ($90), according to government figures released last year.
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Russia’s two largest banks, Sberbank and VTB, plan to open branches and offices in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, annexed by Moscow in 2022.
According to a Reuters report citing statements from the two banks’ CEOs, Sberbank plans to open 16 branches within the regions over the next six weeks, while VTB will open offices in Luhansk in July and expand to Donetsk and Mariupol by the end of the year.
Russian forces only partially control these areas and their annexation, following disputed referendums, has been widely condemned as illegal by many countries across the international community.
