Banking&Finance reporter(wp/reuters)::: Standard Chartered PLC unveiled plans for an up to $1 billion (£773 million) share buyback, its first such in at least 20 years as quarterly profit rose 10 percent, signalling progress in its turnaround strategy.
The bank’s shares rose 4 percent on Tuesday against a 0.5 percent decline in the STOXX European banks index, as its long-suffering investors interpreted the buyback as a statement of confidence about its prospects of growing returns.
“They are good results, and about time too, it’s been a long wait,” said Hugh Young, managing director for Asia Pacific at Aberdeen Standard Investments, StanChart’s 15th biggest shareholder.
The share repurchase plan comes after StanChart Chief Executive Bill Winters unveiled in February ambitious plans to double return on tangible equity and dividends in three years by cutting $700 million in costs and boosting income.
Winters won plaudits from investors for his initial three-year plan that began in June 2015 with a focus on revamping the risk culture, slashing costs and purging bad loans that had accumulated in a post-2008 period of over-aggressive growth.
But the CEO then faced a tougher task, as StanChart battled to boost revenue at a time when slowing economic growth in core Asian markets, volatile commodities markets and the impact of the U.S. fines hammered profits.
The bank’s London shares have fallen 42 percent since the former JPMorgan banker took over as CEO.
StanChart said on Tuesday in its quarterly earnings filing that it had received regulatory approval to start buying back shares worth up to $1 billion.
“Hopefully the message is pretty clear — we are back on returning capital, something we have not done for 15 or 20 years which is good,” Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford told reporters.
Pretax profit for StanChart, which focuses on Asia, Africa and the Middle East, grew to $1.38 billion in the January-March period from $1.26 billion a year ago, the London-headquartered bank said.
StanChart announced this month a $1 billion settlement with the United States to bring to a close a long-running probe into whether the bank continued to violate sanctions after 2007, when it said it would no longer do business with Iran.
In addition to the $900 million provision the bank made in 2018, it took a “further and final charge” of $186 million in the first quarter, StanChart said.
The bank said its core capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, fell by 30 basis points from end-December to 13.9 percent, with the cost related to resolution of the alleged sanctions violation shaving off 7 basis points.
The share buyback programme, which the bank said would start imminently, is likely to reduce its capital ratio in the second quarter by roughly 35 basis points, it said.
ENCOURAGING
Stanchart saw its underlying return on tangible equity (ROTE) hit 9.6 percent for the quarter, close to the 10 percent full year target it has said it will reach by 2021, but cautioned its overall 2019 return would be lower due to a tax hit in the final quarter.
“Full-year ROTE has typically been about 60 to 70 percent of Q1 so that’s a proxy you should have in your mind,” Halford said.
The bank’s performance in the January-March period was boosted by strong results in its financial markets businesses, with foreign exchange and interest rates trading revenues both up 20 percent from the same period a year ago.
The performance was especially notable in a quarter where most U.S. and European investment banks’ trading arms have suffered badly, hit by lower market volatility which cut commissions from clients’ trading.
A review has since been carried out by Kent and Essex Police to assess if there was "sufficient new evidence".
Relatives have been told a "full investigation" will begin.
Three previous investigations into 92 of the deaths by Hampshire Constabulary resulted in no charges being brought.
Assistant Chief Constable Nick Downing, head of serious crime at Kent and Essex Police, met relatives at a meeting in Fareham.
He said he hoped the investigation would be "some comfort" to them.
He said: "This investigation is not about numbers, it is about people - specifically those who died at the hospital and the loved ones they have left behind.
"This is a highly complex and emotive case that some family members have been living with for more than 30 years, and I would like to thank them for their continuing patience and understanding during this process."
He said police would be meeting families individually to collect statements on their relatives' experiences of the hospital.
an Sandford, whose mother died in Gosport, was among relatives at the meeting.
He said: "Frustration doesn't even come near. They should have sorted this out a long time ago.
"All I want to hear is a good result."
The Gosport Independent Review Panel report, published in June 2018, found there was a "disregard for human life" at the hospital.
It also found an "institutionalised regime" of prescribing and administering amounts of opiate medication that were not clinically justified.
The report said the quality of previous police investigations had been "consistently poor".
It found whistleblowers and families were ignored as they attempted to raise concerns about the administration of medication on the wards, which was overseen by Dr Jane Barton.
Dr Barton retired after being found guilty by a medical panel of failings in her care of 12 patients at Gosport between 1996 and 1999.
Dr Jane Barton was found guilty of serious professional misconduct in 2010 but no prosecutions were brought
Police investigations into 92 deaths resulted in no charges
Telecom reporter(wp/reuters)::: Telecoms group Vodafone found security flaws in equipment supplied by China’s Huawei to its Italian business in 2011 and 2012, the two companies said on Tuesday.
Vodafone, the world’s second-biggest mobile operator, said it had found security vulnerabilities in two products and that both incidents had been resolved quickly.
Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied such accusations.
Vodafone paused the deployment of Huawei equipment in its core networks in January as the British group waits for Western governments to give the Chinese company full security clearance.
Last week Britain sought to navigate its way through the bitter dispute, with two security sources telling Reuters that it had decided to block Huawei from all core parts of its 5G network and restrict access to non-core parts.
The British governement is still deliberating on the use of Huawei equipment in a future 5G network but aims to announce its decision in the next month.
A government report in March rebuked Huawei for failing to fix long-standing security issues and said that British security officials had found “several hundred vulnerabilities and issues” with the company’s equipment in 2018.
However, mobile operators such as Vodafone have warned that a complete ban on Huawei would delay 5G, which will offer much faster data speeds and underpin future development in many industries, such as self-driving cars.
The two companies said they had found software vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 that were fixed by Huawei.
Vodafone said it had found no evidence of any unauthorised access and that Huawei could not have accessed the fixed-line network in Italy without permission.
“The issues were identified by independent security testing, initiated by Vodafone as part of our routine security measures, and fixed at the time by Huawei,” a Vodafone spokesman said.
Huawei said it was made aware of historical vulnerabilities in 2011 and 2012 and that they had been addressed at the time.
“Software vulnerabilities are an industry-wide challenge,” it said. “Like every information and communications technology vendor we have a well-established public notification and patching process, and when a vulnerability is identified we work closely with our partners to take the appropriate corrective action.”
Vodafone said the vulnerability had stemmed from the use of Telnet, a protocol that was commonly used by many vendors for performing diagnostic functions. It allows equipment manufacturers to communicate with their products after they have been deployed.
“It would not have been accessible from the internet,” Vodafone said.
The news of the historical flaws was first reported by Bloomberg.
Spokesmen for the British government’s digital department and for the National Cyber Security Centre declined to comment.
BT, Britain’s biggest fixed and mobile operator, said that over the course of more than 10 years of working with Huawei it had not identified any security breaches or evidence of unsolicited communications.
Huawei competes with Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia.
Britain’s main opposition Labour Party meets on Tuesday to hammer out its position on whether to demand a second referendum on any Brexit deal as part of its campaign for the European parliament election next month.
With Britain’s delayed departure from the European Union far from clear, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is under pressure from many lawmakers and party members to throw his support behind a second referendum, or confirmatory vote, on a Brexit deal.
So far, the party has stuck to its position that it would only back such a vote to prevent what it calls a “damaging Tory (Conservative) Brexit” or to prevent Britain leaving without a deal - a prospect that businesses increasingly fear.
A Labour source said Tuesday’s meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee was not likely to agree something beyond the current stance, which would mean Labour would not hold another vote if it secured its Brexit plan.
That could further infuriate Labour lawmakers, including deputy leader Tom Watson, who have been pushing for a second referendum, a rift that fuelled the breakaway of eight Labour politicians who have formed a new party called Change UK.
Nearly three years after voters backed exiting the EU by 52 to 48 percent, the main parties, like much of the country, are deeply divided over Brexit, leaving it unclear when, and even if, Britain will leave the bloc.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal has been rejected three times by parliament, forcing the Conservative leader to open talks with Labour to try to find common ground and win approval to avoid taking part in the European elections.
After nearly four weeks of the talks, Labour sources said Monday’s talks with the government were better in tone than before and that ministers had shown some willingness to move, declining to offer specifics.
But with time ticking down and a new Brexit deadline set for Oct. 31, parties are readying themselves for the May 23 elections, offering those wanting to remain in the EU and others supporting a clean break another potential battleground.
A major new study highlights the scale of the obesity problem in the UK, with a significant risk of death and disease attached to weight gain.
People with a body mass index (BMI) of 30-35 were at 70% higher risk of developing heart failure than their healthy weight peers (18.25-25 BMI).
The study of 2.8 million adults showed even slightly overweight people were twice as likely to get Type 2 diabetes.
Public Health England said "sustained action" was needed to tackle obesity.
The study also showed:
For those with a BMI of 35-40, the risk of Type 2 diabetes was almost nine times higher, and 12 times higher for sleep apnoea
People with severe obesity (BMI of 40-45) were 12 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes and had a risk of sleep apnoea that was 22 times greater
People with a BMI of 40-45 had triple the risk of heart failure, high blood pressure, and dyslipidaemia (abnormal levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood)
BMI of 40-45 was also linked to a 50% higher risk of dying prematurely from any cause
The study's author, Christiane Haase, said: "With the number of people living with obesity almost tripling worldwide over the past 30 years (105 million people in 1975 to 650 million in 2016), our findings have serious implications for public health."
We calculate BMI using the standard formula of a person's mass in kg divided by the square of their height in metres (kg/m2) and display it to one decimal place.
Where a user's data is entered in imperial units, we first convert to metric and then carry out the BMI calculation.
The BMI result is assigned to a standard category:
Less than 18.5 - underweight
18.5 to 24.9 - healthy weight
25 to 29.9 - overweight
30 to 39.9 - obese (split into two categories for the new study)
40 and over - very obese (also known as morbidly obese)
The research found that the risk of developing serious health problems was highly dependent on whether or not people already had issues at the start of the study.
For example, having high blood pressure at the start of the study was strongly associated with developing dyslipidaemia, chronic kidney disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers looked at health, death and BMI data from more than 2.8 million adults between January 2000 and July 2018 from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.
This was linked with hospital data to estimate the risk for serious health problems.
Victoria Taylor, nutrition lead at the British Heart Foundation, said: "More than a quarter of UK adults (28%) are obese and it's something that we urgently need action on."
But police and prosecutors say the forms are an attempt to plug a gap in the law which says complainants and witnesses cannot be forced to disclose phones, laptops, tablets or smart watches.
Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill said they would only be looked at where it forms a "reasonable line of enquiry", with only relevant material going before a court if it meets stringent rules.
The digital consent forms can be used for complainants in any criminal investigations but are most likely to be used in rape and sexual assault cases, where complainants often know the suspect.
The forms state that victims will be given the chance to explain why they don't want to give consent for police to access data, but they are also told: "If you refuse permission for the police to investigate, or for the prosecution to disclose material which would enable the defendant to have a fair trial then it may not be possible for the investigation or prosecution to continue."
Analysis
Asking victims, complainants and witnesses - including those alleging rape - to consent to having their smartphones and mobile devices examined is a big ask.
Most modern phones have more computing power than that which powered the first Nasa missions.
They contain photographs (sometimes intimate), emails and social media postings - (sometimes deeply personal, sometimes indiscreet) - not to mention text messages written in haste.
Many people guard the contents of their smartphones jealously and would regard a police examination as an invasion of privacy.
Civil liberties groups have raised concerns that victims may not report crimes if they fear their smartphone will need to be examined.
However, the police do not have the power simply to seize the phones of victims and witnesses, so consent is the only option. Will people willingly hand over their devices? Would you?
There were concerns that evidence was not being disclosed early enough.
One of the defendants affected was student Liam Allan, 22 at the time, who had charges dropped when critical material emerged while he was on trial.
The Met Police apologised to Mr Allan for a series of errors in its handling of the case, in which he was wrongly accused of rape. He later told the BBC the matter had "completely ripped apart my normal personal life".
The CPS then launched a review of every live rape and serious sexual assault prosecution in England and Wales and, along with police, has implemented an improvement plan to try to fix failings in the system.
But Rachel Almeida from Victim Support said it was "very likely" that letting police access personal information on their phone could add to victims' distress.
She said: "We know that rape and sexual assault is already highly under-reported and unfortunately this news could further deter victims from coming forward to access the justice and support they deserve."
A legal challenge is already being planned, the Centre for Women's Justice said. A claim is expected to be brought by at least two women who have been told their cases could collapse if they do not cooperate with requests for personal data.
The Centre for Women's Justice expressed "serious concerns" over what it called "excessive disclosure requests" from police.
"Most complainants fully understand why disclosure of communications with the defendant is fair and reasonable, but what is not clear is why their past history (including any past sexual history) should be up for grabs.
"We seem to be going back to the bad old days when victims of rape are being treated as suspects", Harriet Wistrich, the organisation's director, said.
The CWJ also warned of a "deterrent effect on the reporting of rape allegations", giving the example of a woman, referred to as Olivia, who recently reported rape to police.
Olivia said: "My phone documents many of the most personal moments in my life and the thought of strangers combing through it, to try to use it against me, makes me feel like I'm being violated once again."
'Digital strip searches'
Civil liberties charity Big Brother Watch said victims should not have to "choose between their privacy and justice".
"The CPS is insisting on digital strip searches of victims that are unnecessary and violate their rights," the organisation added.
Rachel Krys, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: "We have an extremely serious problem with prosecuting rape in this country and it is a fact that most rapists get away with it.
"Part of the reason for this is that investigations too often focus on women's character, honesty and sexual history, despite rules which are supposed to prevent this, instead of the actions and behaviour of the person accused.
"There is no reason for rape investigations to require such an invasion of women's privacy as a matter of routine."
Scotland Yard said it recognised the "inconvenient" and "awkward" nature of handing devices to police.
"People who have been victimised and subjected to serious sexual assaults, for example, that's an awful thing to happen to them and you don't wish to make it worse by making their lives really difficult.
"But to pursue the offender, the way the law is constructed, we do have these obligations, so we have to find a way of getting that information with a) as much consent as we can, which is informative and b) with the minimum of disruption and irritation and embarrassment to the person whose phone it is that we're dealing with."
Staff reporter(wp/reuters)::: British holidaymakers are favouring destinations outside the European Union after repeated delays to Brexit discouraged travellers from booking early and prompted them to look further afield, travel firm Thomas Cook said on Monday.
Turkey and Tunisia are among the biggest beneficiaries from the trend towards non-EU bookings, the firm said in a report, with demand for both recovering after security concerns curbed bookings in recent years.
Britain was due to leave the EU on March 29, but an impasse in parliament over the terms of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has delayed departure. A new deadline of Oct. 31 was agreed with Brussels.
Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel company, said it was “clear that the prolonged uncertainty around the manner and timing of Britain’s exit from the European Union has led many to delay their decision on when and where they book for their summer holidays.”
But a majority of the 3,422 UK holidaymakers surveyed by the company nevertheless said they were more likely to holiday abroad than last year, with a quarter saying that a foreign holiday was higher in their spending priorities than in 2018, compared to just 8 percent who said it was lower.
“Britain may be living through unique times from a political perspective, however our desire to holiday abroad is clear,” said Will Waggott, Chief of Tour Operating for Thomas Cook.
“The political turmoil is having an impact in other ways, revealing itself in a clear shift to non-EU countries.”
Thomas Cook said 48 percent of its UK package holiday bookings for this summer so far were to non-EU destinations, up 10 percentage points on the same time last year.
Turkey has overtaken Greece to be the second most popular destination, with Spain remaining in top spot.
And a slight increase in “all-inclusive” holidays could reflect a desire for travellers to “lock in” food and drink costs given the possible volatility in the pound, the company said.
Earlier this month easyJet warned that travellers were holding off booking their summer holidays due to uncertainty over how Brexit would go, weakening demand for tickets and thus prices.
