FCA chief, Nikhil Rathi, warned of ‘adverse consequences’ if challenge made to settlement, court filings allege

The boss of the UK’s financial regulator is accused of threatening a consumer group with “adverse consequences” if it blocked a £9.1bn compensation scheme meant to settle the motor finance scandal.

Legal documents reviewed by the Guardian said the alleged comments by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, amounted to “an inappropriate intervention by a public official”.

Savings grow as energy prices in Great Britain rise and cost of panel installation falls, analysis finds

Households in Great Britain’s cloudiest regions could still save more than £400 a year on their energy bills by installing rooftop solar panels, research has found.

Rising wholesale energy prices mean the potential savings from a home solar panel system have climbed in recent years, as the cost of installation has continued to fall, leading to increased demand.

Exclusive: FCA pressures firms to do more to sort 760,000 accounts as watchdog urges families to use free tracking service

Child trust fund providers are being put under the spotlight to check they are treating savers fairly and doing all they can to reunite young people with lost accounts.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said about 760,000 accounts worth an average of £2,000 were yet to be claimed – more than £1.5bn in total – as it launched a review of the market.

Centre for Economics and Business Research calculates effect of inflation and wage stagnation to end of 2027

UK households will have suffered a £2,400 financial hit, on average, from the Iran war by the end of 2027, new analysis shows.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has calculated that the jump in inflation since the conflict began, and weaker wage growth, will knock £1,100 off the real income of the average UK household in 2026, and by a further £1,300 in 2027.

Smartglasses with cameras can benefit the vision impaired but companies might pit ‘accessibility benefits against safety and privacy’, eSafety says

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Australia’s online safety regulator has urged smartglasses companies to automatically blur people’s faces filmed on the devices, and make it clearer when someone is filming, as the federal government faces pressure to ban the technology.

In advice to industry published on Monday, the office of the eSafety commissioner warned that while smartglasses with cameras, such as Meta’s Ray-Ban, can offer accessibility benefits to low vision or blind people, companies might pit “accessibility benefits against safety and privacy considerations”, and noted there was already a backlash to the technology.

Corporate regulator finds insurers settling most claims with cash rather than by managing repairs or rebuilding, warning of ‘unfair outcomes’ for homeowners

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Home insurers are overwhelmingly paying cash to settle claims, leaving Australians to foot blowouts in repair costs for their cyclone-damaged homes.

The corporate regulator is calling for “realistic” bigger payouts, warning the practice could cause “unfair outcomes” for people already in vulnerable positions.

Critics say changes by CMA will allow multinationals to obscure their ownership of vet practices

Pet owners have been warned that they could be unknowingly ripped off by private equity firms who have bought local vet clinics, after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) removed requirements for multinational companies to disclose which practices they own.

The CMA recently ran an investigation into the monopolisation of vet practices, and found that the lack of competition and transparency of ownership had led to high prices and a lack of information for customers. Pet owners were often unaware their local vet practice could be owned by an international private equity company.

Plagued by bank impersonation scams, one Guardian Money reader got even by stringing the fraudsters along … for hours

“A couple of Sundays ago at just past 11am my mobile rang. An automated message purported to be from Barclays Bank, querying a payment to Argos for more than £1,000. Not only had I not made a payment to Argos recently, nor do I bank with Barclays.

I am plagued with these kinds of calls. Usually, when possible, I make it clear to the scammers that I know their game. Usually, that call ends there and then.