Lloyds Banking Group has been hit by more than 300 million pounds of suspected fraud linked to COVID-19 pandemic-era recovery loans for small businesses, the highest among big bank peers, according to government data.

British banks overall have classified some 1.1 billion pounds worth of the emergency lending scheme known as “bounce back” loans as fraud, the data published on Monday by Britain’s Department for Business, Energy and Industry (BEIS) showed.

Lloyds is the worst hit among big banks by net amount, and also saw a higher ratio of likely fraud with some 3.6% of its 8.5 billion pounds of bounce back loans categorised as under suspicion.

That compared with 2.4% for Barclays’ 10.8 billion pounds lending under the scheme, 1.7% for NatWest’s 8.9 billion and 1.3% for HSBC’s 7.3 billion.

A Lloyds spokesperson said its rate of suspected fraud was lower than the 7.5% average estimated by the scheme’s adminstrator the British Business Bank.

“Where fraud has been identified, we have acted promptly and have already recovered the majority of these funds without calling on the guarantee and we will continue to attempt to do so even after a claim has been submitted,” the spokesperson added.

The other banks said the differing levels could partly reflect some lenders having more sophisticated fraud detection measures, as well as different thresholds for classifying a loan as suspect.

The levels of fraudulent loans at the lenders are not final and are subject to change. Under the scheme rules, the government is responsible for the fraud costs if banks can prove they administered the scheme correctly.

“These schemes were implemented at unprecedented speed to protect millions of jobs and businesses. If the government didn’t move quickly, more businesses would have failed and many more jobs lost,” a government spokesperson said.

Smaller online lenders were hit disproportionately hard by suspected fraud, with two classing as many as around one in four of their bounce back loans as potential scams.

London-based New Wave Capital Limited – which trades as Capital On Tap – and Isle of Man-based Conister Bank reported 27% and 24% respectively of their loans as suspected fraud, according to government data.

New Wave Capital and Conister did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

The latest data on overall fraud levels, first reported on Friday, hints at a potential headache for the Conservative party and bank bosses alike over how the emergency lending scheme was rushed through in 2020.

A junior government minister, Theodore Agnew, resigned in protest at the handling of the scheme in January, saying efforts to stop fraudulent abuse on the loans was “woeful”.

The British Business Bank has said appropriate fraud checks were in place from the start, and lenders administering the scheme said overall fraud levels were low.

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Lloyds rack up £300m of likely scam Covid loans new government data shows

Vladimer Gersamia was born in Tbilisi, the capital city of the Republic of Georgia in 1983. While he was still a child, Valdimer and his family had moved to the Netherlands, where he attended that country’s British School to receive his primary education.

In a logical next step, he moved to the United Kingdom itself to complete his secondary education at The Leys School in Cambridge. Following that, he enrolled in the University of West England in Bristol, eventually earning credentials in History and Economics.

After graduating, Valdimer Gersamia would spend the next eight years employed by firms in the City of London as a financier. There, he worked with investors, hedge funds, and traded various financial products. However, when the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing great recession of 2009 took hold, he came to realize that working within industries based on speculation, such as risk assessment and high finance was not the right path for him, and he changed course to work in a more tangible, and in his view, stable sector. He began to focus on fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), specifically importing exotic foods to Eastern Europe, and eventually becoming a widely-respected specialist. In this role, he worked with large wholesalers and retailers creating and securing supply chains for the delivery of products, primarily coming from South America and Africa.

As 2020 neared, Vladimer Gersamia moved back to his home country of Georgia and established his own importing business, MMBI Trading, with his focus remaining on FMCG and exotic foods. Now, little more than two years later, MMBI is a successful multinational trade firm with offices in Dubai, Istanbul, Yerevan, Almaty, and Tashkent.

What do you currently do at your company?

I oversee the day-to-day operations. The model we have is quite horizontal in management and operation. You can look at it in two ways: There’s the backbone with all the offices in management, accountability, financial reporting, and other performance indicators. And then the front end involves our teams on the ground. We have teams in five different geographic territories with an established office in each area that have people sourcing supplies, helping customers, and so on. My job is best described as an American football quarterback, making sure that everything runs as smoothly as it can. It falls upon me to make sure our targets are hit and that our financial volumes are achieved.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

The COVID pandemic for sure! A few years back I wanted to drift away from the service sector and move into bringing tangible products into the market with real world value. But in terms of my own business, the pandemic showed that we, myself included, took the old methods that created the supply chain for granted. When everything shut down, it made people realize that we need much smaller, targeted, and localized means to get products to the people that need them. That’s what my company does.

What defines your way of doing business?

There are many ways of conducting business. I feel there isn’t any one particular set of rules that people should follow. Everyone has to find their own path forward. What feels right for me is a long-term trust approach for business relationships. I don’t like the cutthroat mindset where you feel compelled to undermine your competition, steal clients, and so on. We would rather make one dollar a month for ten years instead of $100,000 in one day at the cost of the relationships with our counterparts. We are built on long-term relationships, which in this region is quite new and understandably, some people are a little cautious about it. However, we feel that in the long run, the long-term relationships will be better for all parties concerned, both morally and financially.

What are the keys to being productive that you can share?

It’s all about discipline and distraction, right? From the moment you wake up to until you fall asleep, you are flooded with information, news, and advertisements. It’s very key, personally, for me to take care of all my tasks first thing in the morning, when my productivity is highest. Among other things, that means limiting the amount of access I have to email. So, all of my colleagues and partners know better than to send me an email if there’s something urgent. In such a case, they call me, knowing that I will be there to answer them. I think that just waking up and checking my emails on an ad hoc basis is detrimental to my productivity. So, I stick to a schedule of checking my emails at set intervals at midday, 3 pm, and then in the evening. I also try to make sure that the day’s most important tasks are done first. That way, I only have to deal with calls and meetings in the afternoon.

How do you measure success?

The measurement of success generally has changed over time. If you look at the 1980s and 1990s, it was very much just about the material aspect. Now, the prevailing consensus is that success is based more on the environmental, social, and governance values in society. But for me, I think the constant themes have been personal responsibility and growth. If I’m conscious that I’m growing, along with my business, and I am growing as a person, that is all the success that I strive for. So, that being the case, I would consider myself successful if I were to compare myself from last year to this year.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned through the course of your career to this point?

Looking back doesn’t give you anything. There will always be an opportunity to redeem yourself or make up for the mistakes you make, therefore, slowing down and looking back is not a good idea. Obviously, you should learn from your mistakes, but I’ve found that as long as you keep moving forward, opportunities will come to you because life doesn’t stop. So, the most valuable lesson that I’ve learned so far is to just keep going forward.

What advice would you give to others who are aspiring to succeed in the same field?

Owning and operating a fast moving consumer goods importing firm is very stressful. You have to understand that it’s not a nine-to-five kind of fixed job where you clock in the morning and out in the evening. You have to be ready at all times of the day because you’re dealing with different time zones, different suppliers, and different goods that might be in one place in the morning and in another later that night. Basically, the best piece of advice that I can give is that you have to be ready all the time, which is why I don’t think it’s a job for everyone. Some people really want a distinction between work and life, whereas this, fortunately or unfortunately, will take over your life.

How do you  maintain a work life balance?

It’s a challenge. When I look at my business, I try not to separate my family and my life away from work with my work. It’s all one part of the whole. So, I try not to have this sort of segregation of assets. I’m available all the time for my business partners, but I’m also available all the time for my family, as well. The way I balance everything is by not thinking of it in terms of balance, but rather in terms of equal amounts of attention.

What are your favorite things to do outside of work?

I love sitting down in a park without a phone in silence. It’s a very underappreciated way to spend time. Before the advent of smartphones, if you were waiting for the bus or some such mindless activity, the best idea in the world may occur to you because you were not otherwise engaged. But now, any spare moment people have is spent checking the news or playing a game or checking social media, or something like that. I’ve found that switching off my phone for 24 hours, even if it’s once every one to three months, does wonders for me. In this day and age, contemplative silence without screen time  seems a bit eccentric, but I appreciate it very much.

What is one piece of technology that helps you the most in your daily routine?

The advent of electronic signatures was something that I really appreciated when they were first introduced. Since then, they’ve played a big role in saving me time. Before, I would have to literally sign about 200 documents by hand per day. So, I’m grateful to Adobe for developing this technology.

What has been the hardest obstacle you’ve overcome in business?

When you start a new business, the hardest obstacle is getting people to work with you. To different people, trust can mean many things. In general, it’s a track record. When you apply for a bank account or a loan with a new financial institution, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, because they want to see what you’ve done over the past year, your earnings, and the like. As a new business, you have no track record or data to show them and it requires a leap of faith on their part to work with you. Metaphorically speaking, you will probably have to knock on a 100 doors or more to find partners willing to take that kind of a risk, but eventually, some people will open their doors to you. Navigating my way through that process was a big challenge.

Who has been a role model to you and why?

One role model I know very well was my grandfather. He was born in Russia, and as you can imagine from his probable age, at that time, it was under a horrible communist regime. But, by the 1980s, the Soviet government had introduced something called Perestroika, which allowed private enterprise, private property, and the accumulation of capital to fuel its first entrepreneurs. And you have to remember, that class was .001% of the population and everyone else was in horrible conditions working for the state. First, my grandfather was a role model for me in the sense that he wasn’t scared to be one of the few who bravely created a new enterprise in such an uncertain landscape. Secondly, he was always helping other people. He showed me that to grow a business and lead a satisfying life, the focus should be much more on your capital and revenue accumulation rather than your expenses. It’s a very hard strategy to implement in real life, but it’s something that I aspire to.

What is a piece of advice you have not forgotten?

There’s an old Chinese saying that a lazy man works twice as hard. I think it’s a fantastic saying because whenever you take lazy shortcuts, you end up needing to do more work to make up for the mistakes and setbacks that inevitably arise as a result of your initial laziness.

Read more:
Getting to Know You: Vladimer Gersamia, Founder of MMBI Trading

Retailers, pubs groups and banks were among a swathe of domestic stocks that rose strongly yesterday, buoyed by the prospect of Liz Truss announcing an emergency energy support package for households and businesses.

The plans, expected to be detailed tomorrow after concerns about months of political paralysis, raised investors’ hopes that they would alleviate the pressure on consumers, lifting both confidence and discretionary spending.

The prime minister, who is under pressure to move quickly to tackle the energy crisis, is expected to freeze household energy bills at about £2,500 a year under multibillion-pound support measures to protect people from soaring prices.

The bond markets honed in on the scale of extra debt issuance likely to be required if Truss goes ahead with loans to energy suppliers. Benchmark ten-year gilt yields pushed past a previous high of 3.092 per cent set in 2014 to peak at 3.147 per cent, their highest since July 2011, before falling back to stand 13 basis points higher on the day at 3.070 per cent.

Economists said a freeze on domestic gas and electricity prices could curb inflation and the extent of the looming recession. Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics, said inflation may peak at about 11 per cent in October this year, rather than 14.5 per cent in January next year as forecast at the moment.

Shearing added that although the economy was still likely to enter recession, “the peak-to-trough fall in real GDP may be more like 0.5 per cent than our current forecast of 1 per cent”.

Equity markets reacted positively to news of a possible freeze on energy bills on the grounds that it could ease pressure on family finances and boost consumer confidence. Shares in Greggs and Domino’s Pizza, the takeaway chains, jumped on the FTSE 250 mid-cap index, which is more exposed to the UK economy, rising by 7.1 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively. Mitchells & Butlers, the group behind All Bar One and Browns, and JD Wetherspoon, the pubs company, rallied by a respective 7.4 per cent and 5.5 per cent.

Retailers and airlines also recovered, with Moonpig Group, the online gifts retailer, gaining 6.6 per cent and easyJet 4.2 per cent. Meanwhile, JD Sports Fashion gained 3 per cent, Lloyds Banking Group 4.5 per cent and International Consolidated Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, 3.2 per cent on the FTSE 100. Kingfisher, the retail group behind B&Q and Screwfix, the second most heavily shorted stock on the London exchange, also rallied by 2.8 per cent on the leading index.

The latest signs of people cutting back on purchases of clothes and other non-essential items was shown in a survey from the British Retail Consortium, which found that the value of total sales at its members had risen by 1 per cent last month compared with August last year, softer than the 2.3 per cent increase in July.

The rally helped to lift the FTSE 250 by 191.16 points, or 1.03 per cent, to 18,820.84. The FTSE 100, which has a greater exposure to the global economy, closed up 13.01 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 7,300.44, extending gains into a third straight session.

The promise of tax cuts has alarmed some investors, raising concerns that it could inflame inflation and accelerate the Bank of England’s interest rate rises and a worsening recession, which Threadneedle Street has forecast to begin this year and to not end until 2024.

Saxo Bank said that freezing energy bills was a “recipe for ballooning fiscal deficits, an issue that is already an ingredient in sterling’s steep fall this year, so an even steeper recession is in the wings”.

Traders have positioned themselves for a 66.7 per cent chance of a 75-basis-point rise at next week’s meeting of the Bank’s monetary policy committee.

Sterling, which on Monday fell to its weakest level since March 2020, rose to $1.15, but analysts warned its recovery could be brief. Commerzbank said the pound’s rise was “unlikely to last”, as an expansionary fiscal policy would boost inflation and government debt; UniCredit said “sterling is now more sensitive to the difficulties the Bank of England is facing in getting rocketing UK inflation back on track”.

Brokers also questioned the boost to consumer stocks. Jefferies, downgrading several UK retail shares “ahead of multiplying consumer pain”, estimated that at today’s energy prices the income available for discretionary spending would contract by more than 6 per cent in 2023-24, despite modelling 5.5 per cent earnings growth and a “major hike in energy subsidies from the new government”.

James Grzinic, at Jefferies, said politicians were “starting to grasp the gravity of the challenges ahead” and that an “ever-increasing resolve to prevent an unprecedented level of economic destruction could have surprising political consequences in the weeks ahead”.

Read more:
Hopes for energy price freeze delight investors

Workers will suffer a real-terms fall of £2,000 in the value of their wages by the end of this year and energy prices could hit nearly £7,000 in 2023 without government intervention, PwC has warned.

In its latest economic outlook, the Big Four professional services group has predicted that the economy will tip into recession this year as people face a double hit to their incomes from higher inflation and rapidly rising energy bills.

“Businesses and consumers could face two ominous milestones in the months ahead — a potential five-decade high in the inflation rate and the largest fall in real wages since records began,” Nick Forrest, UK economics consulting lead at PwC, said.

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The figures add further pressure on Liz Truss to provide support for households and businesses, amid reports that the government is considering capping energy bills at a cost of about £90 billion. “The path of natural gas prices and degree of government support will influence the potential size and scale of a downturn,” Forrest said.

Figures from Nationwide suggest households are £249 poorer than they were a year ago and in a poll by the building society a majority of consumers said they would cut back their costs as much as they could before energy bills triple this October. Nationwide said 12 per cent of struggling households “are avoiding seeking any additional support and are relying on their situation naturally improving, with younger people nearly five times more likely to avoid seeking help”.

Britons are in line to suffer falling real incomes for the next two years, a record drop in living standards and the worst recorded since the end of the Second World War. High inflation, which is in double-digits and could peak near 17 per cent next spring, is driving up the cost of living.

A government cap on energy bills is likely to lead to a sizeable reduction in headline inflation. Analysts at Capital Economics said a cap would mean inflation peaks at 11 per cent in October, lower than the 13 per cent predicted by the Bank of England.

“The economy is still likely to enter recession, but the peak-to-trough fall in real GDP may be more like 0.5 per cent than our current forecast of 1 per cent,” Neil Shearing, the consultancy’s group chief economist, said.

Read more:
Workers ‘face real-terms wage cut’ without government help

Boots has launched a new budget brand that includes toiletries such as shampoo, shower gel and toothpaste for under £1 as the deepening cost of living crisis leaves UK shoppers cutting back even on essential items.

The high street health and beauty chain said it had created the new “everyday” brand to make it easier for customers to find the lowest-priced toiletries on its shelves as living costs continue to rise.

Jenna Whittingham-Ward, the head of beauty for Boots brands and exclusives, said the budget brand would allow customers to make “make small everyday switches to help save money” while leaving them “clean and feeling good”.

“At a time when many people are facing choices between heating and eating and we’re all bracing ourselves for a winter of feeling the pinch more than ever, we’re offering a no-compromise range to help customers,” she said.

With UK inflation running above 10% for the first time in 40 years, driven by soaring prices of food and fuel, Boots said shoppers were looking for deals and promotions.

Everything in the 60-product range will cost £1.50 or less, including large bottles of shampoo and conditioner for 75p and period products starting at 70p. The range also includes toothbrushes, cleansing wipes and hand wash.

Retailers are being forced to adapt to straitened times as retail sales data highlights shoppers cutting back and switching to cheaper own-label products.

Boots has already frozen the price of more than 1,500 products until at least the end of the year to make sure they remain affordable for customers.

In May, Asda launched the “just essentials” food brand aimed at shoppers facing pressure on their household finances, with the supermarket recently reporting that one in three shoppers were regularly buying the label.

Boots said the budget mango and papaya shampoo and 85p “zingy” raspberry and pomegranate shower gel would not disappoint, with Whittingham-Ward saying it had stuck to its slogan, “if it has got Boots on it, it has got our best in it”.

Makeup sales often thrive in difficult economic times as small luxuries become a way for cash-strapped consumers to treat themselves. This idea is known as the “lipstick effect” and Boots said it was seeing evidence of the trend, with overall beauty sales up 14% on last year and demand for fragrances rising by nearly a fifth.

“Sales of beauty products at Boots continue to rise, suggesting customers still want to treat themselves to new makeup, perfume or skincare, despite cost of living pressures,” said Seb James, the chief executive of Boots UK.

“During the last recession, we experienced two things: firstly, the ‘lipstick effect’, which is the determination to continue purchasing small treats, and secondly, increased spending on own label and promotions,” he added. “These trends have returned, with 500,000 new signups to our Advantage card [Boots’ loyalty scheme] within six months – the biggest number of new joiners for some time.”

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Boots launches budget range as UK shoppers cut back in cost of living crisis

The UK’s biggest broadband providers are to benefit from an almost £2bn windfall when they push ahead with inflation-busting price increases next spring which will further fuel the cost-of-living crisis, an analysis shows.

Many of the country’s main internet providers – including the largest player BT, along with TalkTalk, Shell and Vodafone – use a mechanism to increase the cost of bills annually by the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) in January, plus 3.9%.

The Bank of England forecasts that inflation will hit 13.3% in the fourth quarter, while some analysts have warned it could top 22%, meaning the companies will benefit from almost £1.4bn in extra revenues from the next round of price rises next year, according to estimates from broadband provider Hyperoptic.

BT, which attributed the majority of sales growth between April and June to this year’s almost 10% bill hike, has already said that it will “stick the course” next year as its own costs also soar.

Virgin Media O2, the UK’s third biggest broadband provider, introduced an even bigger price increase this year of 3.9% above the retail prices index (RPI) rate of inflation, which is several percentage points higher than the CPI.

The provider does not contractually guarantee a price rise each year – although this usually does happen – but assuming it does put up bills that would push the overall telecoms windfall above £1.7bn, according to one analyst.

This figure does not include the billions more that the telecoms companies will make by also raising prices on mobile phone contracts again next year.

“Broadband is a vital utility and – now more than ever – it needs to be affordable,” said James Fredrickson, director of policy at Hyperoptic.

In June, the UK’s biggest mobile and broadband companies agreed a plan at a government-led summit to help customers struggling to pay bills, including moves to allow switching to cheaper deals without paying a penalty and offering more low-cost “social tariffs”.

Sky, the UK’s second biggest broadband provider, has launched an 18-month “price freeze” for new customers, as competition heats up with households looking to cut their telecoms bills. Unlike most of its rivals, Sky does not link its price rises to inflation, with its annual increase working out to an average of about 5% this year.

Last month, the consumer group Which? estimated that 5.7 million households faced at least one “affordability issue”, such as missing a payment or having to cancel or change a service, with their mobile, landline or broadband service in April.

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UK’s broadband firms set for £1.7bn windfall with above-inflation price rises

Uber’s former security officer, Joe Sullivan, is standing trial this week in what is believed to be the first case of an executive facing criminal charges in relation to a data breach.

The US district court in San Francisco will start hearing arguments on whether Sullivan, the former head of security at the ride share giant, failed to properly disclose a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber riders and drivers around the world.

At a time when reports of ransomware attacks have surged and cybersecurity insurance premiums have risen, the case could set an important precedent regarding the culpability of US security staffers and executives for the way the companies they work for handle cybersecurity incidents.

The breach first came to light in November 2017, when Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, revealed that hackers had gained access to the driver’s license numbers of 600,000 US Uber drivers as well as the names, email addresses and phone numbers of as many as 57 million Uber riders and drivers.

Public disclosures like Khosrowshahi’s are required by law in many US states, with most regulations mandating that the notification be made “in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay”.

But Khosrowshahi’s announcement came with an admission: a whole year had passed since the information had been breached.

“You may be asking why we are just talking about this now, a year later,” Khosrowshahi said at the time, adding that the company had investigated the delay and had fired two executives who had led the response to the breach, one of whom was Sullivan.

Uber’s disclosure sparked several federal and statewide inquiries. In 2018, Uber paid $148m over its failure to disclose the data breach in a nationwide settlement with 50 state attorneys general. In 2019, the two hackers pleaded guilty to hacking Uber and then extorting Uber’s “bug bounty” security research program. In 2020, the Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Sullivan.

In court filings, federal prosecutors alleged that in an attempt to cover up the security violation, Sullivan had “instructed his team to keep knowledge of the 2016 Breach tightly controlled” and to treat the incident as part of the bug bounty program.

That program was intended to incentivize hackers and security researchers to report vulnerabilities in exchange for cash rewards, but it did not allow for “rewarding a hacker who had accessed and obtained personally identifiable information of users and drivers from Uber-controlled systems”, the complaint says.

The hackers in the 2016 breach were rewarded $100,000, the complaint says, more than any bounty the company had paid as part of the program until that point.

Sullivan also allegedly had the hackers sign a supplemental non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which “falsely represented that the hackers had not obtained or stored any data during their intrusion”, federal prosecutors wrote.

The justice department complaint alleged that only Sullivan and the former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick had knowledge of the full extent of the hack as well as a role in the decision to treat it as an authorized disclosure through the bug bounty program. However, as the New York Times first reported, the security industry is divided over whether Sullivan deserves to be held solely responsible for the breach. Some have questioned whether the role of other company executives and its board should be investigated as well, while others say Sullivan’s role in it was clear.

“I don’t know if Uber management knew about the concealment … or if Sullivan was directed to make the $100,000 payment to hide the breach. The trial will ferret all that out,” Jamil Farshchi, the chief information security officer at Equifax, wrote in a Linkedin post. “What I do know is that nobody is disputing that a breach of 57 million people occurred, Uber concealed it, and that Joe Sullivan … was involved in the concealment.”

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Uber’s ex-security chief faces landmark trial over data breach that hit 57m users

Jacob Rees-Mogg was named the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) following Liz Truss’ cabinet reshuffle last night.

He will take on the BEIS department from Kwasi Kwarteng, who has been named Chancellor.

Rees-Mogg tweeted that it was an “honour” to be appointed Business Secretary.

It is an honour to be appointed as the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. I look forward to serving the Prime Minister and the country during the challenging times ahead. https://t.co/celkpMOHBe

— Jacob Rees-Mogg (@Jacob_Rees_Mogg) September 6, 2022

He said: “As Business Secretary my overriding mission is to deliver affordable and plentiful energy to the British people and to make the economy as efficient, innovative and dynamic as possible. This will be the department for growth.”

The incoming Secretary of State has a hefty in-tray to deal with – with the Government pushing to boost domestic energy generation to ensure the country’s supply security.

This includes decisions over whether to reform planning to boost onshore wind and potentially fracking, alongside meeting ambitious targets for offshore wind, solar, nuclear and oil and gas outlined in the energy security strategy.

British households are facing an unprecedented squeeze on living standards, with wholesale costs soaring following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While there is likely to be a vast support package for households this winter, there are also genuine fears over supply shortages.

This means that despite Rees-Mogg’s call for growth, his first few months in office could involve him scrambling to secure more energy supplies to meet our needs.

However, former government advisor and awards director of the Business Champion Awards Richard Alvin sounded a note of caution to Rees-Mogg’s appointment, saying: “for many months now the minister has been saying that staff must go back to the office and work and business can only function in a formal office environment, for the now business minister to enter this role at such a crucial time for the country with this mindset is very worrying.”

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Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘honoured’ to be new business secretary at crucial time for UK business

Holiday Inn owner, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), has confirmed the company has been hit by a cyber-attack.

IHG, which has some of the world’s largest hotel chains, issued a statement saying it was investigating “unauthorised access” to a number of its technology systems.

The UK-based company said its “booking channels and other applications” had been disrupted since Monday.

It manages the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Regent hotels.

“IHG is working to fully restore all systems as soon as possible,” the company said.

IHG confirmed it was assessing the nature, extent and impact of the incident and had implemented its response plans, including appointing external specialists to investigate the breach.

The company is also in the process of notifying regulatory authorities.

In a statement, the company said: “We will be supporting hotel owners and operators as part of our response to the ongoing service disruption. IHG’s hotels are still able to operate and to take reservations directly.”

But many people trying to book accommodation have been complaining.

IHG did not say there had been any loss of customer data.

It also did not specifically say it was a ransomware attack, but most of the speculation points in that direction.

Last month, a Holiday Inn in Istanbul was breached by LockBit, which released data stolen from the company.

It is not known if there is a connection between the attacks.
The hotel chain was also the target of a three-month security breach in 2017 when more than 1,200 of its franchised hotels in the US were affected.

The hack comes amid increased scrutiny on appropriate defences against cyber-attacks, particularly on Western financial institutions, in the wake of heightened geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early this year.

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Holiday Inn hotels hit by cyber-attack

The bosses of Britain’s biggest banks will hold talks with the new chancellor on Wednesday as he tries to exert a grip on the stalling UK economy.

It is understood that Kwasi Kwarteng has convened a meeting with the chief executives of lenders including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest Group just hours after being appointed to the post.

City sources said the meeting was to set out the government’s approach to the economy as Liz Truss’s administration attempts to respond to the crisis triggered by soaring global inflation.
The £100bn-plus energy relief package that Ms Truss is expected to finalise this week is not thought to be a central plank of Mr Kwarteng’s agenda.

Ministers are understood to be planning to finance their energy market intervention through additional government borrowing rather than loans to energy suppliers to subsidise bills.

Britain’s biggest banks have been told by the City regulator to outline how they plan to support their customers through the cost of living crisis, and the new chancellor is likely to impress upon them the importance of doing so, according to one insider.

HSBC, Santander UK and Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, are also expected to be represented during the talks with Mr Kwarteng.

A source said Virgin Money might also be present.

The chancellor, who will replace Rishi Sunak, Ms Truss’s rival for the Conservative Party leadership, is likely to meet the bank chiefs on a regular basis as ministers seek to weather the current economic turbulence.

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Chancellor Kwarteng summons bank chiefs for economy crisis talks