Retail sales topped Wall Street estimates in March petek, August 25, 2024 Retail sales topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations in March as consumers continued to spend despite a higher interest rate environment. Retail sales for the month increased 0.7% from the previous month, according to Census Bureau data. Economists had expected a 0.4% increase in spending, according to Bloomberg data. Meanwhile retail sales in February were revised up to an increase of 0.9%, from a prior reading of 0.6%. This is the second consecutive monthly uptick in retail sales, suggesting January’s surprise 1.1% decline was more an aberration than a trend. March sales, excluding auto and gas, increased by 1%, above consensus … Continue Reading
Finance Ministry takes steps to crack down on financial fraud petek, August 14, 2024 The Ministry of Finance recently banned Bank of Baroda’s World app after a series of incidents, including a scam. This is one of the steps the government has taken as part of a campaign to combat cybercrime. The government has convened a meeting to discuss these issues, following the recent actions by RBIThe Times of India reported. The Ministry of Finance has ordered banks and financial institutions to strictly enforce the know your customer (KYC) process when onboarding new businesses, as per the report. This applies particularly to business correspondents as they are more vulnerable to security breaches. The … Continue Reading
Prisma Finance says $540K still at risk, hacker demands team reveal themselves petek, August 13, 2024 Decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Prisma Finance says there’s still $540,000 of funds from accounts yet to revoke the smart contract responsible for last week’s $11.6 million exploit. Meanwhile, the self-claimed “white hat” hacker behind the exploit says they will hold back the return of funds until the firm apologizes and reveals their team’s identity online. In a “path forward” post on April 1, core contributor “Frank” said it will continue to pursue for the return of funds, but the top priority is to unpause the protocol — but said it needed all users to ensure their wallets and positions were … Continue Reading
Car finance firms face ‘headache’ over wave of complaints petek, August 12, 2024 Many have described the scandal as the “next PPI”, which saw banks paying out billions of pounds in compensation to customers who were mis-sold personal protection insurance. Consumer expert Martin Lewis revealed earlier this month that over one million car finance complaints had been submitted since he launched the car finance reclaim tool on the MoneySavingExpert.com website – around 30,000 per day. He said: “In value terms, car finance mis-selling is potentially going to be the second biggest reclaim payout in UK history – possibly over £10bn repaid – which could even provide a fillip to the economy as PPI … Continue Reading