Reports of a new financial order are greatly exaggerated

The fact that a significant proportion of all funds held in Switzerland are illicit is now also widely accepted. The Swiss Bankers Association has agreed that proportion may be as high as 50%. The UK-Switzerland tax deal confirmed this year is built on the assumption that this is the case.

The Guardian

Lloyds Banking Group has now set aside a staggering £5.3billion to settle PPI mis-selling claims after a £1billion increase in its provision for meeting claims today which also forced the bank to report a third quarter loss.

This is Money

It [Barclays bank] increased its provision for payment protection insurance (PPI) by £700 million to £2 billion. With Lloyds announcing an extra £1 billion in PPI provision in its quarterly results today, it takes the total set aside by UK banks for PPI mis-selling to £11 billion and counting.

Barclays have also been ordered to pay fines of £293 million by the US energy regulator after the bank was found guilty of manipulating the American electricity market. The bank says it intends to fight the allegations “vigourously”.

My Finances

The Times reported that Unite has responded to the Financial Services Authority’s September consultation on incentivising staff with research that shows the high pressure bank employers are under to push products, leading to mis-selling scandals such as payment protection insurance.

Unite found banks workers faced being named and shamed, forced to work late, and were threatened with the sack if they failed to hit sales targets.

 New Model Adviser

Andrew Haldane, a member of the Bank [of England]’s financial policy committee, said the Occupy movement was correct in its attack on the international financial system...

... “It is the analytical, every bit as much as the moral, ground that Occupy has taken. For the hard-headed facts suggest that, at the heart of the global financial crisis, were — and are — problems of deep and rising inequality.”

Mr Haldane concluded by telling the activists that they had helped bring about nothing less than a new financial order.

“If I am right and a new leaf is being turned, then Occupy will have played a key role in this fledgling financial reformation,” he said.

 The Telegraph

The analysis may be sound, but as for a new leaf being turned, that sounds like one hell of a big 'if' to me...

'Robbing a bank's no crime compared to owning one' Bertolt Brecht

via 21st Century Fix