Brexit, HSBC, energy and pensions

Some gloomy news this morning as toy manufacturers and brewers announce price hikes to their products. The Guardian reports that the price of some toys, including Lego and Peppa Pig merchandise, could increase by up to 15 per cent as a result of the plunging pound. Natasha Crookes, spokeswoman for the British Toy and Hobby Association, said most UK toy makers, who typically design products in Britain but have them manufactured and imported from east Asia, had managed to contain price rises until now. Meanwhile, Heineken and Carlsberg have become the latest beer makers to raise prices, following MolsonCoors – maker of the UK’s most popular beer, Carling – and ABInBev, whose stable of brands includes Budweiser. According to The Guardian, brewers have signalled that far larger Brexit-related rises are on the horizon. In other Brexit news, ThisisMoney reports that US bank Citigroup will move some jobs out of London to a rival European financial centre because of Brexit.

James Cowles, Citigroup’s chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the bank had been in talks with governments and regulators in different countries, including Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Swiss bank Credit Suisse has also confirmed it is considering a number of European cities.

HSBC HSBC will close a further 62 bank branches in the UK in 2017, the BBC reports.

The news follows a Which? report at the end of last year which found that HSBC closed the most branches in 2015 and 2016. HSBC said the plans brought its ‘branch restructuring programme’ to an end.

BT The Telegraph reports on a story which has been dominating business news for the past few days: BT’s accounting scandal in Italy. Yesterday BT endured its worst ever day as a public company as investors punished the company for revealing a deterioration in its UK public sector and corporate business alongside the details of improper accounting by its Italian business. The shares ended the day down more than 20 per cent. Energy

Households could be hit with annual energy rises of £219.39 on average as several fixed dual fuel energy tariffs come to an end on 31 January. Research from Gocompare.com Energy has found that of the 20 dual fuel tariffs expiring this month, 16 will see price increases if customers allow themselves to be automatically rolled onto their supplier’s standard variable tariff.

Compensation

Mail Online reports that ‘more than 2 million people in Britain could be in line for a payout of £3,000 from Volkswagen if the High Court case over the emissions scandal is successful’. The total cost for VW in Britain alone could reach £6 billion.

Pensions

New data from the upcoming Moneyfacts Personal Pension and Annuity Trends Treasury Report has revealed that last year pension funds enjoyed their highest returns since 2009.

Despite considerable economic and political uncertainty during 2016, the average pension fund finished the year up by 15.7 per cent. This is the fifth consecutive year of positive pension fund growth and will be welcome news not only to those saving into a defined contribution pension scheme, but also the growing number of retirees who remain invested in pension funds by opting for income drawdown.

Of all the pension funds surveyed, the vast majority (94 per cent) delivered positive growth during 2016.

In other pensions news, the BBC reports that ‘the number of people accessing their pension pots from the age of 55 rose slightly at the end of the year…there were 393,000 withdrawals made by 162,000 people in the final three months of 2016, a slight rise in both categories compared with the previous three months, according to HM Revenue and Customs’.

Workplace discrimination

The Times reports on a special parliamentary investigation which found that ‘women have been told to wear short skirts and plunging necklines and even dye their hair blonde’. MPs heard from women who were also ordered to reapply make-up throughout the day and told off for wearing loose clothing in hot weather.

Now MPs have called for companies to face fines for such discrimination and for employment tribunals to make awards against employers who flout the law. Finally…

Two thirds of us expect to leave an inheritance, and according to SunLife’s Cash Happy report, one in five adults are relying on receiving one. The average inheritance now stands at over £119,000.

SunLife’s latest research shows that most of us would save it, in fact one in ten would save it all while a further eight in ten would save most of it – £56,596 on average.

Two fifths would use £6,000 of the cash to pay off debts while almost a third would clear an average of £16,000 off their mortgages. Most (75 per cent) would then spend the rest – £21,400 on average, slightly up from last year when we said we’d spend £19,600.