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Chancellor Rachel Reeves will on Thursday call for an overhaul of the UK system for consumer redress in the financial services sector, as lenders brace for a potential multibillion pound bill for alleged mis-selling of car finance.

Reeves wants to modernise the operation of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to give consumers and businesses more clarity about the compensation landscape in future, according to allies of the chancellor.

She will use her Mansion House speech on Thursday to promise stability as she attempts to reassure her City of London audience that she has a clear economic growth strategy following her £40bn tax-raising Budget.

The role of the FOS in major City compensation cases has been under scrutiny in the Treasury for months, but Reeves’ allies said the need for reform had been brought into stark relief by recent turmoil in the car finance sector.

The FOS has taken a consumer-friendly stance on complaints over alleged mis-selling of car finance that has put the Financial Conduct Authority, the chief UK financial regulator, on the back foot, and threatened to leave banks exposed to compensation claims worth billions of pounds.

“The FOS has an important role to play in protecting consumers but there is a case for modernising it and giving consumers and firms more clarity,” said one person briefed on Reeves’ thinking.

Two rulings by the FOS at the start of this year upholding consumer claims against banks have forced the FCA to step in and pause such compensation cases while it investigates the issue of commissions paid to car dealerships by finance companies and decides how to respond.

Lawyers at “magic circle” firm Clifford Chance said in a note last month that “the ramifications of the position FOS has taken . . . could be significant”. 

Barclays is challenging one of the decisions by the FOS from earlier this year in a judicial review.

But lawyers said the bank was likely to lose after the Court of Appeal said last month it was unlawful for car dealers to receive any commissions from finance providers unless they were fully disclosed and accepted by consumers, in a ruling that went further than the FOS.

The stance of the FOS in siding with consumers on car finance has echoes of its role in the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal, which ended up costing banks about £50bn in redress.

In the three months to April, the FOS said it received 15,925 complaints about car finance, almost five times more than during the same period last year.

It added more than 90 per cent of these were brought by claims management companies, which shot to prominence by pursuing PPI complaints for thousands of consumers in return for a cut of any compensation.

Nikhil Rathi, head of the FCA, said earlier this year the UK redress system “stands out in Europe due to its combination of complexity and the scale of claims management activity”, and endorsed a review.

Meanwhile Reeves will use her Mansion House speech to urge the technology and telecom sectors to do more to combat online payment fraud, after claims by the financial services industry that they are enabling such activity.

Almost 80 per cent of so-called push payment fraud — when someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee — starts online, of which 60 per cent is estimated to begin on social media, according to trade body UK Finance.

Banks and payment companies have since October been liable to reimburse claims of push payment fraud worth up to £85,000.

Reeves will demand that companies including Meta, TikTok, BT and EE update ministers about progress on fraud prevention before March, with the veiled threat of further action if they fail to act.

Asked whether Reeves would be prepared to go further, a Treasury official said: “The ball will be back in our court if demonstrable progress has not been made.” 

However, Reeves will fall short of committing to specific measures that would give social media companies a financial incentive to prevent fraud by making them shoulder some of the cost of reimbursing fraud victims.

Separately Reeves will outline major pension reforms, including the consolidation of the £391bn of assets in 86 separate local council retirement schemes, to create a series of “Canadian-style” megafunds that would be encouraged to invest in the UK.

The chancellor has ruled out — at least for now — forcing pension funds to invest in UK assets such as equities and infrastructure, a move which would have provoked an outcry from the sector.

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This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign

Two million women in the UK do not think they will ever be able to afford to retire, according to a landmark study — but pension providers hope greater digital engagement will boost the prospects for future generations.

Now in its 20th year, the Scottish Widows’ Women & Retirement Report found that women still face significantly worse retirement outcomes than men, even though the gender pensions gap is gradually reducing.

The detailed study of over 5,000 UK adults found that 42 per cent of women — and 35 per cent of men — currently face poverty in retirement. Nearly one in seven women said they would need to continue working past the state pension age of 66 to top up their retirement income.

The impact of the motherhood penalty and the cost of childcare on women’s lifetime earnings remained “the most significant barrier”, said Jackie Leiper, managing director at Scottish Widows. In response, the pensions giant is using an array of digital tools to turn younger female customers on to the benefits of starting pension saving early.

“TikTok is where a lot of young people — and young women especially — are getting their financial information,” she said. “Women are really engaged and are keen to learn more about pensions.”

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Scottish Widows launched its own pensions hub on TikTok in September, and video content on pensions and retirement has so far generated more than half a million clicks to its website.

It has combined this with educational content about pensions on its app, which is now used by more than one in 10 of its 4.5mn workplace pension customers. Open Banking technology allows customers to create their own “digital pensions dashboard” on the company’s app, by linking other pension and Isa accounts from other providers. As well as transferring in former workplace pensions, customers can also adjust their level of savings and are prompted to check their state pension forecast.

Almost two-thirds of female respondents said they had done little or no research about how much they needed to save, but Leiper said these initiatives helped people of all ages to engage with pension saving and think about their “tomorrow money” and retirement goals in the round.

The wider pensions world is also embracing social media to boost people’s pension awareness. Social media megastar Gemma Collins recently fronted the “Pay Your Pension Some Attention” campaign funded by the Association of British Insurers and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

One YouTube ad features Collins in what appears to be a commercial for anti-ageing face cream, before she delivers the killer line: “Sorry hun, but there’s a more important pot to think about — your pension.”

Data from TikTok shows there was a 300 per cent increase in use of the hashtag #retirementplanning in the first quarter of 2024, compared with a year previously. Video content tagged under this banner has received more than 10mn views this year.

Looking back over the past 20 years, Leiper said there had been a “generational shift” in pensions saving following the introduction of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions in 2012, but warned: “On it’s own, it won’t fix this problem.”

Women are over-represented in lower-paid, part time jobs, so many lose out on pension saving as they earn less than the £10,000 earnings trigger for automatic enrolment

Women are over-represented in lower-paid, part time jobs, so many lose out on pension saving as they earn less than the £10,000 earnings trigger for automatic enrolment. Scottish Widows is campaigning for this to be reduced and mandatory contributions raised from the current 8 per cent to 12 per cent, though Leiper accepts that next April’s jump in employer national insurance contributions would push back the timeframes. “We hope that the government’s pension review will create a road map for this, even if changes are not made immediately,” she said.

Leiper added that many of the 2mn women unable to afford to retire were likely to be divorcees, noting how pensions are often overlooked in divorce settlements.

“Because pension assets are held in individual names, they are often a hidden thing,” she said, believing many women simply might not know the value of their husband’s pot.

She said the “annuity conundrum” was another future problem: “Currently, three-quarters of all annuities are put in single names, even if the person is married,” adding that the higher monthly income on single policies was the likely reason why. “Women left widowed might assume they are going to get their husband’s pension — but many do not.”

At the current rate of progression, it will take another 20 years to close the gender pensions gap.

This is what Scottish Widows independent financial adviser workplace senior manager Susan Hope told Money Marketing while discussing its latest women & retirement report 2024.

However, the report does outline that the gender pensions gap will close in 20 years, only if the government implements further policies encouraging further women to save into a pension.

These policies include:

• Getting more women saving into a pension and qualifying for the full State Pension;
• Increasing the confidence women have to invest and manage their finance;
• A shift in approach to joint financial planning so that women do not lose out when annuities are purchased or in the event of divorce.

The report did highlight that “good progress in reducing the gender pensions gap over the last 20 years” has been made.

The gender pensions gap has reduced from 52% to 33% since 2008 for those aged 50-64, but women currently nearing retirement are still likely to have pension pots which are a third smaller than men.

Scottish Widows also predicts that at the current rate, two million women in the UK feel like they will never be able to retire.

In order to make further positive changes, Hope believes collaboration is needed between regulation, the industry and employers.

Hope said this issue does not only impact women, “it affects everyone as everyone has women in their life”.

In regards to auto-enrolment, Hope said it has been “great” but 43% of women do not feel confident enough to manage their own pension.

Additionally, issues remain that predominantly impact women. If a single mother works two jobs part time and earns under £10,000 per job she will not be eligible for auto-enrolment and miss out on a pension.

“So working mums can be hit.”

Scottish Widows head of pensions policy Pete Glancy said: “Within the pensions system, reforms to auto-enrolment could allow those working part-time, or juggling multiple jobs to benefit from pension contributions, including contributions from their employer where they themselves are unable to save at that point in time.”

The report also looks at women’s attitude towards investment for the first time in the reports 20-year history. It showed only 38% of women invest outside of pensions, compared to 55% of men.

This gap is exacerbated for young women as 34% of women aged 18-24 invest, compared to 64% of men aged 18-24.

Women are less likely to feel that investing is for people like them, and they are less likely to feel sufficiently supported to learn more about investing.

Still, more women aged 18-24 would consider investing if they had the right advice and resources. The most common cited barrier to investing was understanding potential risks and rewards better (36%) and access to official financial advice (31%).

Hope does feel the gap is “within our reach to close it” but we need to take a “holistic” approach towards pensions.

Hope added: “The pensions gender pay gap belongs in the past, let us be the generation that makes it history.”

Glancy added that the government has announced a Pensions Review, where Scottish Widows believes Phase 2 of that review will have the gender pensions gap “within its scope”.

“This is the opportunity for all stakeholders who genuinely believe in gender pensions equality to contribute to that review, making the case for the reforms that will make a difference.”

My Pension Expert policy director Lily Megson said: “Yet again, we’re faced with damning evidence that British women are drawing the short straw when it comes to their pension planning.

“Targeted support from the government is therefore a must. Taking action through policy that boosts financial education, encourages active pension engagement, widens access to auto-enrolment and closes the gender pay gap is a vital step in empowering women to achieve the retirement they deserve.”

In order to obtain these results, Scottish Widows commissioned YouGov to survey 5,102 adults aged 18+.

YouGov also conducted a second survey to better understand investment behaviours and shifts in attitudes, with 3,650 adults aged 18+.

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The Post Office will close more than 100 branches, placing hundreds of jobs at risk, as the state-owned UK business seeks to put itself on a sounder financial footing following an IT scandal.

Proposals by the Post Office will result in 115 lossmaking, wholly-owned branches being shut down, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move will affect about 1,000 workers, while hundreds of jobs at the company’s headquarters are also at risk.

Post Office interim chair Nigel Railton is expected to set out plans for the future of the business on Wednesday after a review.

It operates about 11,500 branches across the UK, most of which are run by franchisees.

The 388-year-old institution has struggled to retain relevance in a competitive market for parcel delivery where many consumers and businesses use services which cut the Post Office out of the process for sending and receiving packages.

Although it has attempted to reinvent itself by providing banking services, the Post Office still receives ten of millions of pounds in state subsidies each year.

The business reported pre-tax losses of £81mn in 2022-23, down from £131mn in the previous year.

The long running Post Office IT scandal, in which nearly 1,000 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted using flawed data between 1999 and 2015, has preoccupied executives.

Nick Read will step down as Post Office chief executive in March following a five-year stint that was overshadowed by one of the UK’s most serious miscarriages of justice.

Appearing before a public inquiry into the scandal last month, Read said the business had “more to do” to win the trust of sub-postmasters.

The Post Office is wholly owned by the taxpayer, but is run at arms-length by the government through UK Government Investments, a body responsible for managing a portfolio of wholly or partially state-owned companies such as NatWest and Channel 4.

Gareth Thomas, postal affairs minister, has commissioned a separate review into the future of the Post Office as the government considers the viability of mutualisation as a form of ownership, among other options.

The Post Office said it would set out a “new deal” for sub-postmasters that will “dramatically increase postmasters’ share of revenues . . . and make it work better for local communities, independent postmasters and our partners”.

The Department for Business and Trade said: “The government is in active discussion with Nigel Railton on his plans to put postmasters at the centre of the organisation and strengthen the Post Office network.”

All Images credit Bayerischer Hof Hotel

As the legendary German writer Thomas Mann once said, “Munich is a city that lives in the heart of the world.” Staying at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel is an embodiment of this sentiment, where the heart of the city beats in every corner. Here, the past and present are woven together, offering a fascinating contrast of grandeur and modern vibrance. The hotel’s classical white interiors set the stage for a refined, timeless atmosphere, while its impeccable service delivers the kind of luxury that feels almost indulgent. Yet, beyond the tradition and history, the Bayerischer Hof reveals a surprising, rock star-like energy—where elegance collides with unexpected flair, creating an unforgettable experience.

A Legacy of German Hospitality

Founded in 1841 by architect Friedrich von Gärtner, under the patronage of Bavarian King Ludwig I, the Bayerischer Hof swiftly became Munich’s premier address for state guests. Its distinguished visitors included Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Sigmund Freud, while Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria famously met his love, ballet dancer Antonia, here in secret.

In more modern times, the hotel’s guestbook continues to read like a who’s who of global entertainment and politics. The Beatles, during their 1960s tour, famously had a pillow fight in their suite, leaving the staff with a memorable (and messy) cleanup. Michael Jackson’s stay in 1998 with his family became legendary, further immortalized by a fan-created memorial to Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus across the street. Celebrities from Franz Kafka to Daniel Craig, Lenny Kravitz, and Luciano Pavarotti have also graced its halls, ensuring the Bayerischer Hof’s status as more than just a hotel.

While the hotel remains tight-lipped about many of its VIP guests, it’s no secret that luminaries like John F. Kennedy and Muhammad Ali have spoken fondly of the place, as have countless others.

A Secretive Tradition

In addition to these colorful anecdotes, the hotel hosts the prestigious Munich Security Conference each year, where politicians, diplomats, and experts from around the world convene to discuss critical security matters. The discreet nature of these gatherings reflects the hotel’s long-standing tradition of guarding its secrets, adding another layer to its enigmatic appeal.

The Picasso Heist

An intriguing chapter in the hotel’s storied history occurred in 1989, when Picasso’s Tête de Femme was stolen from the lobby. Despite the hotel’s security measures, the thief vanished with the artwork, and its whereabouts remain a mystery to this day—a curious footnote in a hotel filled with far more glamorous episodes.

The Bayerischer Hof’s decor pays homage to its heritage with Louis XVI-style barometers, Louis Philippe armchairs, and rich jacquard floral bedspreads. Yet it’s also a place where tradition gives way to the modern: contemporary design elements like wood, concrete, and clean lines stand in juxtaposition to the opulence of its past.

Luxurious Accommodations

The hotel offers 340 rooms, each reflecting a different design aesthetic. The pinnacle of luxury is the €15,000-per-night penthouse suite, with a private entrance, rooftop gym, sauna, and sweeping views of Munich’s skyline. 

The suite’s panoramic windows allow guests to take in the city’s spires, parks, and streets, while a private terrace offers a secluded space to unwind with a sunset toast. With marble bathrooms, bespoke art, and cutting-edge amenities, it’s more than just a place to stay—it’s an experience.

Michelin Star Dining

Dining at the Bayerischer Hof is an experience in itself. The Blue Spa rooftop restaurant offers Bavarian specialties like white sausage, pretzels, and deep-fried donuts in the morning, while the evening presents the opportunity to relax in the spa’s sauna and enjoy the expansive Munich view.

For a more elevated culinary experience, Atelier Restaurant, with its three Michelin stars, offers a modern twist on French cuisine. The concrete and wood interior exudes youthful vibrancy, and the dishes are nothing short of artistic. Highlights include perfectly roasted venison with chanterelles and rich Chartreuse jus, and a delicate Japanese hamachi served with a miso-ponzu glaze—flavors that blend artistry with craftsmanship.

Cocktails and Historic Atmosphere

For cocktails, there’s no shortage of options. Trader Vic’s, with its Polynesian charm, offers exotic drinks in an island-inspired setting, while Falk’s Bar, nestled in the hotel’s historic Hall of Mirrors, exudes a glamorous, intimate vibe where history seems to linger in every mahogany panel.

Spa and Wellness

The Blue Spa, located just below the penthouse, is a sanctuary of tranquility, with a rooftop pool offering stunning views of the city. Designed by French interior designer Andrée Putman, the spa’s minimalist aesthetic and avant-garde furnishings provide a perfect contrast to the hotel’s more traditional elements, adding to the sense of timeless luxury.

A Cultural Hub

As much a cultural landmark as a hotel, the Bayerischer Hof regularly hosts art exhibitions, concerts, and international events, making it a central part of Munich’s cultural scene. Its prime location offers easy access to iconic sites such as Marienplatz and the vibrant Viktualienmarkt.

For me, staying at the Bayerischer Hof felt like stepping into a living legend. Every corridor, and every room holds echoes of a glamorous past, whispering stories of illustrious guests and historic events. This isn’t just a place to sleep; it’s a time capsule, a stage where dreams have been made and memories forged.

No matter your age or background, the Bayerischer Hof continues to be a beloved icon—Munich’s own rock star, forever etched in the hearts of all who visit. Its ageless appeal reflects the devotion of those who have passed through its doors, ensuring that, in 2024, it remains as cherished and adored as ever.

Written by Kemal Akhtar

BBC

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