Bankrupt Banker

The

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: left;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Osborne_0437.jpg" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="English: George Osborne MP, pictured speaking ..." height="450" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/George_Osborne_0437.jpg/300px-George_Osborne_0437.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 300px;">English: George Osborne MP, pictured speaking on the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections, at Keele University. (805x1207 px, 283,711 bytes) (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:George_Osborne_0437.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</span></span><br />
<div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Borrowing to cover the gap between spending and revenue was £600m in July,<a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_276550.pdf" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">the Office for National Statistics said</a>. There was a surplus of £2.8bn in the same month a year earlier.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The Treasury blamed disappointing corporation tax receipts.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Labour said the government's efforts to try to cut the deficit had "choked off the recovery".</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Analysts suggest the government could end up borrowing about £30bn more than last year, when official forecasts had suggested borrowing would fall this year.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The Office for Budget Responsibility, the official UK economic forecaster, said there was still "significant uncertainty" about the outlook for borrowing this year.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Four months into the financial year the government has borrowed £44.9bn, £9.3bn higher than the same period in 2011. That excludes banking interventions and the one-off boost in April from a transfer of Royal Mail pension assets to the public sector.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The OBR had predicted that borrowing on the same measure would be £120bn for the whole of the financial year, down from the £125bn borrowed last year.</div><span class="cross-head" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Policy pressure</span><div class="videoInStoryC" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px -160px 16px 16px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 320px;"><div class="emp page-bookmark-link-aware" id="emp-19330964-47044" style="cursor: pointer; height: 180px; position: relative;"><img height="180" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62401000/jpg/_62401718_jex_1496478_de05-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px;" width="320" /><a href="" style="background-color: black; color: #1f4f82; display: block; font-weight: bold; height: 80px; left: 0px; margin-top: -40px; opacity: 0.75; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 80px;" title="Click to play"></a><a href="" style="background-color: red; color: #1f4f82; display: block; font-weight: bold; height: 80px; left: 0px; margin-top: -40px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 80px;" title="Click to play"></a><div style="background-image: url(http://emp.bbci.co.uk/emp/releases/worldwide/revisions/749603_749269_749444_5/cta_play.png); height: 36px; left: 26px; margin-top: -18px; position: absolute; top: 50%; width: 27px;"></div></div><div class="caption" style="clear: both; color: #333333; float: left; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-right: -160px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: auto; width: 320px;">Labour MP Chris Leslie "The chancellor is borrowing to cover the cost of economic failure"</div></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The government received 0.8% less in tax than a year earlier due to a drop in corporation tax receipts. Income tax, national insurance and VAT held up, while spending, which includes welfare payments, was more than expected.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Labour said the figures were "a damning indictment of a chancellor who promised to secure the recovery and get the deficit down".</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"[George Osborne's] failed plan has delivered the exact opposite - a double-dip recession which is leading to soaring borrowing," said Rachel Reeves, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">A Treasury spokesman said: "The government remains committed to the credible plan we have set out to deal with Britain's debts."</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">One economist said the figures would lead to further calls for the government to change course.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"We're going backwards not forwards," said economist Alan Clarke of Scotia Bank.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"It's going to increase pressure on the government to get back on track either by tightening fiscal policy further to make up for the lost ground, or loosening policy in the hope that stronger economic growth improves the public finances."</div><span class="cross-head" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Weak economy</span><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">July is usually a good month for tax receipts, meaning the government normally makes a surplus, because it is the month that businesses make quarterly corporation tax payments and individuals' tax self-assessment returns are recorded.</div><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19329758#story_continues_2" style="background-color: white; color: #4a7194; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; line-height: 16px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;">Continue reading the main story</a><div class="story-feature wide" id="economy_glossary" style="background-color: #f1f1f1; clear: right; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px -160px 16px 16px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 304px;"><div class="glossary_header" style="padding: 7px 7px 0px;"><div class="title" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em;">Crisis jargon buster</div><div class=""><div class="instructions" style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms:</div><fieldset style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><label style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s ease-in; background-image: url(http://www.bbc.co.uk/view/1_3_3/cream/hi/shared/img/select-arrow.png); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; display: block; float: left; height: 14px; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 38px 5px 5px; width: 243px;">Deficit</label></fieldset></div></div><div class="glossary_definition" style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px; margin-top: 16px; padding: 7px 7px 9px;"><div class="definition_title" style="color: #d1700e; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px;">Deficit</div><div class="definition_body">The amount by which spending exceeds income over the course of a year.<br />
In the case of trade, it refers to exports minus imports. In the case of the government budget, it equals the amount the government needs to borrow during the year to fund its spending. The government's "primary" deficit means the amount it needs to borrow to cover general government expenditure, excluding interest payments on debts. The primary deficit therefore indicates whether a government will run out of cash if it is no longer able to borrow and decides to stop repaying its debts.</div></div><div class="glossary_footer" style="padding: 7px;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15060411" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Glossary in full</a></div></div><div id="story_continues_2" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">But some said this month's figures should be treated with caution as corporation tax receipts are affected by the temporary closure of the Elgin gas field due to a leak.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The ONS also warned that the timing of self-assessment returns - which are recorded in August as well as July - makes direct comparisons between years difficult. More returns that usual may be recorded in August, as the deadline is the last day of July.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The previous months borrowing figures have also been worse than expected.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"It's the same story we've been seeing since the beginning of the year, that tax receipts are down, which is not surprising given the weaker growth performance of the economy," said Gustavo Bagattini from RBC Capital Markets.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Tom Vosa, an analyst at National Australia Bank, said although the monthly numbers were "terrible", "the trend so far isn't disastrous".</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"Unless we see a further fall in revenue, the government could possibly still have a small undershoot for the fiscal year as a whole."</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The Office for National Statistics said net debt - the sum of all borrowing - was now £1.032bn, or 65.7% of GDP.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The ONS also revised the figure for how much the UK borrowed in the 2011-12 financial year to £125bn. The OBR had forecast £126bn.</div><br />
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The UK government unexpectedly had to borrow money in July, traditionally a good month for tax receipts.

English: George Osborne MP, pictured speaking on the launch of the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections, ...

Jessica

<p>A former Lloyds Bank worker in charge of online security has admitted carrying out a fraud worth more than £2.4m.  Jessica Harper, 50, had been accused of submitting false invoices to claim payments between 2007 and 2011.  At the time she was working as head of fraud and security for digital banking and made false claims totalling £2,463,750.  Harper, of South Croydon, south London, will be sentenced on 21 September.  At Southwark Crown Court, Harper admitted a single charge of fraud by abuse of position by submitting false invoices to claim payments.  'A very simple fraud' She also admitted a single charge of transferring criminal property, the money, which she had defrauded from her employers.  Harper was arrested on 21 December before being charged in May.  Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote  Jessica Harper has today been convicted of the type of crime the bank employed her to combat”  Sue Patten Crown Prosecution Service Antony Swift, prosecuting, did not open the facts of the case but said it was a "a very simple fraud".  He added Harper had already repaid £300,000 and was in the process of selling her house for about £700,000.  "That will be some £1m out of £2.5m that's gone missing," he told the judge.  Carol Hawley, defending, said: "She appreciates the seriousness and has made full admissions in interview.  "She understands perfectly well on the next occasion she will be facing imprisonment of some length."  Breach of trust Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith granted Harper bail on the condition she stays at her current address, obeys a 21:00 to 07:00 curfew and hands in her passport.  Sue Patten, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Central Fraud Division, said: "Jessica Harper has today been convicted of the type of crime the bank employed her to combat.  "The evidence in the case was clear and left Harper with little choice but to plead guilty.  "In doing so, she has admitted to a huge breach of trust against her former employer."  Lloyds is now 39.7% state-owned after being bailed out by the government during the financial crisis.</p>

Jessica Harper admits £2.4m Lloyds Bank fraud

A former Lloyds Bank worker in charge of online security has admitted carrying out a fraud worth more than £2.4m. Jessica Harper, 50, had b...

<p>Shares in Standard Chartered PLC dropped sharply today as investors reacted to US charges that the bank was involved in laundering money for Iran.  The charges against Standard Chartered were a shock for a bank which proudly described itself recently as “boring.”  Shares were down nearly 20 percent at 1,187 pence at one point in early trading Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange. In Hong Kong, they were down 16.6 percent near the end of the session.  New York State Department of Financial Services alleged on Monday that Standard Chartered schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion from 2001 to 2007, leaving the United States' financial system “vulnerable to terrorists.”  Standard Chartered said it “strongly rejects” the allegations. In a statement, the bank said “well over 99.9 percent” of the questioned transactions with Iran complied with all regulations, and the exceptions amounted to $14 million.  The New York regulator ordered Standard Chartered representatives to appear in New York City on Aug. 15 “to explain these apparent violations of law” and to demonstrate why its license to operate in the State of New York “should not be revoked.”  Gary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital in London, said the possible revocation of the New York license was of far greater concern than any potential fine, which could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.  Standard Chartered's US operation facilitates trade for customers that have operations in both the United States and emerging markets.  “Indeed, this is an area of the business that has been highlighted by management for growth,” Greenwood said. “A loss of its US banking license would not only jeopardize part of this profit stream, but the associated reputational damage could also have a severely damaging impact to its operations within emerging markets.”  The New York agency alleged that Standard Chartered conspired with Iranian clients to route nearly 60,000 different US dollar payments through Standard Chartered's New York branch “after first stripping information from wire transfer messages used to identify sanctioned countries, individuals and entities.”  The New York regulators called the bank a rogue institution and quoted one of its executives as saying: “You (expletive) Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians.”  The order also identifies an October 2006 “panicked message” from a London group executive director who worried the transactions could lead to “very serious or even catastrophic reputational damage to the group.”  If proven, the scheme would violate state money-laundering laws. The order also accuses the bank of falsifying business records, obstructing governmental administration, failing to report misconduct to the state quickly, evading federal sanctions and other illegal acts.  Between 2004 and 2007, about half the period covered by the order, the department claims Standard Chartered hid from and lied about its Iranian transactions to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before 2008, banks were allowed to transact some business with Iran, but only with full reporting and disclosure, the order states.  In 2008, the US Treasury Department stopped those transactions because it suspected they helped pay for Iran to develop nuclear weapons and finance terrorist groups including Hamas and Hezbollah. The order states the bank has to provide information and answer questions to determine if any of the funding aided the groups or Iran's nuclear program.  Last week, Standard Chartered' chief executive, Peter Sands, boasted that the bank has racked up a 10-year string of record first-half profits “amidst all the turbulence in the global economy and the apparently never-ending turmoil in the world of banking.”  “It may seem boring in contrast to what is going on elsewhere, but we see some virtue in being boring,” Sands added.</p>

Shares in Standard Chartered dive after Iran allegations

Shares in Standard Chartered PLC dropped sharply today as investors reacted to US charges that the bank was involved in laundering money for...