BISCOM News

UK Chancellor George Osborne spoke yesterday on the future of the UK Economy in a speech called "Building the economy of the future." He's cautiously upbeat.

A very happy Easter to all our readers. Our offices are closed today.

35 US states have taken action against LifeLock Inc alleging that it mistated and overstated the identity fraud protection services it offered.

The story of the fraudulent (or fake, depending on which representative of the UK Government is making a statement) passports used by (alleged) Mossad agents to enter Dubai just one aspect a wider documents problem.

The PNC Financial Services Group, which came to international attention when it took over Riggs Bank in the wake of the allegations that the latter's due diligence processes were defective, is to sell PNC Global Investment Servicing to Bank of New York Mellon for USD2,300 million in cash.

A County Court judge in Michigan, USA, has approved the issue of a class action suit by members of a pension scheme in which it is alleged that the trustees of the scheme have lost the fund USD100 million as a result of ill-advised investments.

It is often said that the only true differentiator between financial services groups is their reputation. Companies spend millions on making sure that their image is presented just so. Two major financial groups have decided that their images are tarnished by the finding that the management and a driver with the Renault F1 team, which prominently bears their logos, cheated and, worse, did so in such a way that lives and property were put at risk.

Check your wallet.What do you find (clean answers on a postcode, please.) Some dollars of various sorts, pounds, euros, maybe even a yen or yuan or two? Bet you've not got any WoCUs.

Australia's CashConverters has grown into a global brand by making pawnshops look like real shops instead of dumping grounds for unwanted stuff. EZCorp is one of the USA's largest pawnbroking operations. Together they will have more than 1000 outlets.

Wikileaks.com is back in the news: this time an application for a gagging order was made by Kaupthing bank after the website published documents showing the bank's loan book. But the bank has withdrawn its application after the story ran around the world in hours, and both public and politicians demanded more not less information.