42% of used hard drives sold through eBay still contain sensitive data according to new research from a leading international data security company. Of these, 15% were found to contain personally identifiable information (PII) even where sellers stated they had used proper data sanitation methods prior to the sale. The study, carried out by Blancco Technology Group in conjunction with partner, Ontrack, analysed 159 drives purchased in the US, UK, Germany and Finland.
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Over 30 million people are set to benefit from the increase to the personal allowance and higher rate threshold this month, as the Chancellor delivers on a manifesto commitment one year early. Britain’s workers will also benefit from the biggest increase to the National Living Wage since it was introduced, rising by almost 5% to £8.21 per hour. This inflation-busting pay rise means a full-time National Living Wage worker will earn an extra £690 over a year.
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The Federal Reserve Board on invites public comment on a proposal that would simplify and increase the transparency of the Board’s rules for determining control of a banking organization. If a company has control over a banking organization, the company generally becomes subject to the Board’s rules and regulations. Over time, the Board has issued public and private interpretations on the topic of control, but banking organizations and their investors often remain uncertain about whether a proposed investment is controlling. The proposal would set forth a comprehensive regulatory framework for control determinations and request comment on the framework.
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The FCA has published a Feedback Statement summarising the responses received to its Discussion Paper – ‘A duty of care and potential alternative approaches’ – published in July 2018, and setting out next steps. As a result of the feedback the FCA received and its early analysis, it has identified options for change that are most likely to address potential deficiencies in consumer protection.
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The latest EU public opinion survey, conducted in late February 2019, highlights continued strong support for the European Union. The European Parliament’s Spring 2019 Eurobarometer, measuring public attitudes to the EU three months ahead of the European elections, reveals that despite the various internal and external challenges to the EU of the past years, the European sense of togetherness does not seem to have weakened.

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The FCA has published a Feedback Statement summarising the responses received to its Discussion Paper – ‘A duty of care and potential alternative approaches’ – published in July 2018, and setting out next steps. As a result of the feedback the FCA received and its early analysis, it has identified options for change that are most likely to address potential deficiencies in consumer protection.
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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) wants people to support their elderly relatives or neighbours if they are receiving nuisance marketing calls. The appeal came as a company selling funeral plans was fined £80,000 for making unlawful marketing calls to people who had made it explicitly clear they didn’t want to receive them. The ICO launched an investigation after a national newspaper had reported allegations of illegal practices at a call centre in Cheshire, run by a company which at the time was called Plan My Funeral Avalon Ltd. Continue reading…

How is mortgage credit affected by the introduction of a tool of macro-prudential policy? The Chilean banking supervisor raised required loan loss provisions for mortgage credit risk. Bank for International Settlements (BIS) argues that financial institutions responded by raising their acceptable borrowing standards on borrowers, enhancing the quality of their portfolio, but also contracting their supply of mortgage credit. BIS reach this conclusion by developing a stylized imperfect information model which BIS use to guide our empirical analysis.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Prosper Funding LLC will pay a $3 million penalty for miscalculating and materially overstating annualized net returns to retail and other investors. San Francisco-based Prosper is a marketplace lender that, through its website, offers and sells securities linked to the performance of its consumer credit loans. According to the SEC’s order, from approximately July 2015 until May 2017, Prosper excluded certain non-performing charged off loans from its calculation of annualized net returns that it reported to investors.

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