6:23PM
Signing off…
Thanks for joining us today. We’ll be back in the morning, but I’ll leave you with the news that the payments watchdog has rejected an industry call to delay a plan to help out fraud victims.
Britain’s payments sector on Monday urged its regulator to scale down and delay by a year tough new compensation rules due to start in October, saying that “significant changes” were needed to avoid damaging competition.
However, the boss of the Payment Systems Regulator, David Geale, rejected the call, saying that it needed to “act quickly” on so-called authorised push payment fraud, where scammers trick victims into sending them money.
Under its current plans, banks and other payment firms will have to reimburse defrauded customers to a maximum of £415,000 from October, with the cost of reimbursement split between sending and receiving banks.
The industry-backed Payments Association has been urging the regulator to impose a cap of £30,000 on reimbursement, still above the average size of each scam.
5:40PM
NatWest pilots new chatbot amid mocking of big banks
NatWest has doubled the number of queries it handles through its “digital assistant” Cora, after rival Nationwide ran adverts mocking bank bosses for foisting chatbots at customers.
The UK banking giant is piloting a new version of its chatbot, dubbed Cora+, from today.
NatWest revealed the virtual chatbot handled 10.8m queries over 2023, up from about five million in 2019.
The top five questions being asked via Cora are about cancelling a transaction, changing an address, asking for a bank statement, requesting a new bank card, or opening an ISA, according to data from the bank.
Major high street banks have been making strides in recent years to modernise their online and mobile banking services, which they say has coincided with fewer customers visiting their branches.
NatWest announced the closure of nearly 50 of its branches this year, after announcing more than 100 closures throughout 2023.
5:12PM
Cac 40 is only nominally French, says investment firm
Investors in the Cac 40 should not worry too much about French politics, an investment firm has said.
Nicholas Hyett, investment manager at Wealth Club, said:
Investors should be wary of getting too caught up in the politics.
Like most European indices, including the FTSE 100, the Cac is made up of global giants that operate all over the world, they are French in name, listing and heritage alone.
Political paralysis may not be welcome for these champions of French industry, but it should prove little more than a minor inconvenience
5:05PM
Virgin Atlantic eyes Gatwick return as it gives up on Heathrow third runway
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic is examining a return to Gatwick and flights from regional airports such as Bristol after giving up hope of a third runway at Heathrow before the end of the decade. Christopher Jasper reports from Las Vegas:
Chief executive Shai Weiss said the airline was evaluating more flights from the carrier’s secondary hub in Manchester and an expansion of the Virgin Holidays arm as part of its plans for growth between 2025 and 2030.
The blueprint, not yet made public but known internally as VX30, will aim to grow revenues by 20pc beyond the £3.5bn expected this year, Mr Weiss said.
He said: “I think we’ve got to rule out a third runway, which leaves either the acquisition of slots at Heathrow or flights from Gatwick and secondary cities in the UK.”
Growth at Virgin’s main Heathrow base remains the preferred option because of the high margins and better connectivity between flights there, but the new growth plan will assume scope for that will be limited.
Sir Richard Branson marshals a Virgin Atlantic flight from Orlando into its stand at Gatwick as the plane completes the first commercial flight powered partly by LanzaTech biofuel, a new form of biofuel converted from alcohol, 2018
Credit: John Nguyen/PA
5:04PM
Footsie closes down
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.5pc today. The biggest riser was investment house M&G, up 2.4pc, followed by Rolls-Royce, up 1.77pc Rentokil Initial was the biggest faller, down 2.9pc, followed by distribution group Diploma, down by a similar 2.9pc.
The FTSE 250 also fell 0.5pc. Harbour Energy was the biggest riser, up 4.8pc, followed by energy company SSE, up 3.3pc. Patria Private Equity Trust was the biggest faller, down 5.2pc, followed by vending machine operator ME Group, down 4.9pc.
5:01PM
Waterstones owner tries to oust US airline boss
The activist shareholder that owns Waterstones has bought a $1.9bn stake in a major US airline and is seeking to force out its boss.
Elliott Investment Management has bought a slice of Southwest Airlines, which has struggled with operational and financial problems.
Shares in the airline rose 8pc on the news.
In a letter to Southwest’s board, the investment firm complained that Southwest’s stock price has dropped more than 50pc in the last three years. It wants to replace Robert Jordan, the chief executive.
Southwest said it was contacted by Elliott on Sunday and looks forward “to better understanding their views on our company.”
“The Southwest Board of Directors is confident in our CEO and management’s ability to execute against the company’s strategic plan to drive long-term value for all shareholders, safely and reliably serve our customers and deliver on our commitments to all of our stakeholders,” a spokesperson said.
A Southwest Airlines plane prepares to land at Midway International Airport in Chicago, 2023
Credit: Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo
4:43PM
French election won’t affect demand for Moet and Hermes, says broker
France’s snap election shouldn’t add too much of a risk for listed French companies “overall”, Kathleen Brooks of investment platform XTB has said. She told The Telegraph:
Overall, we think that the political risk premium should be fairly small for some parts of the French index. After all elections in France should not impact demand for Moet and Chandon champagne or for Louis Vuitton or Hermes handbags.
French exporters, for example the luxury companies and the car companies, have been the most resilient today even though the sell off has been broad based and brutal. We expect these companies to recover in the coming days.
It is a different story for French banks. Societe Generale is down more than 7pc and BNP Paribas is down more than 5pc. The banks are taking the brunt of the selling, and demand for Soc Gen shares was 90 times the 20-day average, suggesting that the political news is driving the sell off in French banks.
The election has come at a bad time for France, it has recently had its credit rating downgraded by S&P,