City faces corruption crackdown as IMF investigates wealthy countries (13 hours old)

G7 nations plus Austria and Czech Republic face tests to prevent money launderingThe City of London will come under the spotlight of the International Monetary Fund as part of a crackdown on corruption that will investigate whether Britain and other rich countries are taking tough enough action against bribery and money laundering.In a hardening of its approach, the IMF said it needed to look at those giving bribes and financial centres that laundered dirty money as well as improving the existing clampdown on wrongdoing in poor countries. Continue reading...

Martin Lewis sues Facebook over fake ads with his name (5 hours old)

MoneySavingExpert founder says firm failed to stop false adverts luring victims into scamsMartin Lewis, the consumer advice and money-saving expert, is suing Facebook for defamation after it published dozens of fake adverts featuring his face and name. He is seeking exemplary damages in the high court, arguing that Facebook failed to prevent or swiftly remove false advertising that has both tarnished his reputation and lured unwitting victims into costly scams. Continue reading...

Bank of England 'dangerously ill-equipped' for next recession, says IPPR (10 hours old)

Thinktank warns of a ‘car crash’ as low interest rates mean further cuts to stimulate demand would not be an option The Bank of England is “dangerously ill-equipped” to avert the next recession and remains mired fighting the last downturn, according to a report calling for the introduction of radical new policy tools. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the odds of a recession once every 10 to 15 years mean Threadneedle Street needs additional firepower for when the economy next begins to falter. Continue reading...

Head of EBRD hopes to expand into sub-Saharan Africa (11 hours old)

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development keen to work with countries committed to market economicsA bank originally set up to help countries of the former Soviet bloc is poised to extend its operations into sub-Saharan Africa in order to speed up progress in meeting ambitious development goals set by the United Nations.Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the president of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said his organisation had the money and the expertise to stimulate the growth of strong private sectors in some of the world’s poorest countries. Continue readin[...]

Dieselgate leaves UK’s car industry in crisis (1 day old)

Sales have slumped in the scandal’s wake and left manufacturers gasping for a breath of fresh airPlummeting sales of diesel cars have driven Britain’s auto industry to the brink of a crisis, with the axe falling on thousands of manufacturing jobs, and dealerships threatened with savage restructuring.Vauxhall, which was bought by Peugeot’s parent company PSA last year, last week revealed plans to slash UK dealerships from 326 to about 200 as part of the French owner’s drive to return the loss-making Vauxhall and Opel marques to profitability. Also this week, it emerged that Nissan is preparing [...]

Construction industry needs a watchdog to stand guard over the little builders (20 hours old)

A new bill aims to ringfence payments to small contractors and stop the practice of ‘subbie-bashing’The concept of dominant forces in the construction industry snatching some readies off folk less powerful in the supply chain sounds a trifle Dickensian. Literally so, in that this is precisely what the odious Sam Pecksniff, the obsequious architect in Martin Chuzzlewit, did by trousering his students’ tuition fees and passing off their work as his own.But it is also quite obviously a modern phenomenon, too, most recently illustrated by the collapse of the “construction” giant Carillion – the co[...]

Labour to seek local support for £250bn 'regional renaissance' (13 hours old)

Party to court regional mayors and councils over transport and infrastructure spending plansLabour is to begin courting regional mayors and councils over its plans for £250bn of transport and infrastructure spending, promising to prioritise projects that boost productivity and help the rest of the country catch up with London. Speaking to the Guardian, Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the party would open a series of consultations with local leaders over the coming months on its proposals to help close the regional divide. Continue reading...

Whitbread results may hold clues to future of Costa and Premier Inn (10 hours old)

Full-year figures could clarify if hospitality group is planning to split coffee and hotels divisionsA potential break-up of Whitbread could be signalled as early as Wednesday’s full-year results, as speculation grows that the group is becoming more receptive to the idea of spinning off its Costa coffee division. Activist investors that have built up stakes in the group over the past year believe that Whitbread would be best split into its two component parts, Costa and the Premier Inn hotel and restaurant chains – the latter including restaurant brands such as Brewers Fayre and Beefeater. Con[...]

What happens to the global publicity titans if advertising no longer pays? (1 day old)

The departure of Martin Sorrell from WPP is just the latest sign of the crisis surrounding big ad firms and their ageing leadersNot so long ago a bearish Sir Martin Sorrell berated the advertising industry for its unrealistic “Don Draperish optimism” in the face of tough times, in a reference to hit TV series Mad Men and its depiction of the halcyon days and excesses of 1960s adland. Now it is the next generation, of Sorrell and his “math men” – the builders of global empires designed to churn out profits – that is now perhaps on the brink of becoming history.Sorrell’s departure may have been [...]

Could Donald Trump's lone ranger approach provide the silver bullet? | Larry Elliott (16 hours old)

The president’s rejection of multilateralism is risky but our 70-year-old rule-based system is far from perfectDonald Trump is playing with fire. That thought permeated last week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington.The US president’s go-it-alone approach – especially in the field of trade – has certainly shaken things up. It is not just the threat of tariffs, nor that the US has brought the dispute settlement system at the World Trade Organisation to a standstill. Continue reading...

European telecoms bosses criticise Brussels’ digital reforms (14 hours old)

Letter from 30 companies says changes will be major disincentive to investment

European telecoms: crossed wires over Vodafone-Liberty deal (19 hours old)

The planned tie-up could create a champion to compete with US and Chinese behemoths, but it faces fierce opposition in Germany

Ericsson turnround shows signs of working (2 days old [20/04/18])

Swedish telecoms group’s shares surge as results beat forecasts

ZTE brands US ban ‘extremely unfair’ (2 days old [20/04/18])

Time Warner’s Bewkes defends AT&T deal in court (4 days old [18/04/18])

Chief executive says $85bn sale is response to rise of Google and Facebook

ZTE Corp: red army ruction (5 days old [17/04/18])

Sanctions are bad news for the Chinese telecoms group but its rivals have little to gain

China’s Huawei backtracks on 5G shift (5 days old [17/04/18])

Former cheerleader pours cold water on technology’s benefits for consumers and operators

ZTE suspends trading in HK and Shenzhen after US ban (5 days old [17/04/18])

Chinese telecoms group faces ‘substantially damaging’ hit, analysts warn

UK and US move on Chinese group citing national security (6 days old [17/04/18])

Telecoms company ZTE hit by sanctions amid growing backlash in west

T-Mobile to pay $40m to settle FCC rural call violations probe (6 days old [16/04/18])

Companies failing to monitor data across supply chain (3 hours old)

Businesses could be vulnerable as EU protection data rules set to take effect

Corporate anti-hacker group gains strength in fight against tech attacks (4 hours old)

Cyber Threat Alliance automatically sharing information doubles membership in a year

Uber’s south-east Asia exit can be Go-Jek’s gain (8 hours old)

Indonesia’s first unicorn start-up plans to expand amid regional ride-hailing shake-up

Google under fire over tactics for EU data regulation (9 hours old)

Plans to preserve business model do not match spirit of GDPR, critics say

Regulating Facebook merely nips at the edge of a bigger problem (10 hours old)

Consumers are under surveillance in ways we have just begun to grapple with

Hunt tells social media groups to protect children (15 hours old)

Health secretary considers legislation to restrict access to online platforms

Microchips have macro problems (1 day old)

Dell's way back, stung by StingRays, Nintendo’s cardboard pianos  

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise (1 day old)

With Brexit less than a year away, the UK government is looking to far-seeing companies such as Queen’s Awards winners to show the way in international trade and innovative ideas

The UK battery technology racing towards an electric future (1 day old)

A Formula E crash proved the worth of Williams Advanced Engineering’s new tech

Wanted: British export and innovation expertise post-Brexit (1 day old)

The UK needs new ideas and skills for expanding sales worldwide