HSBC UK ‘working hard’ to fix online banking problem; Amazon workers begin Black Friday strike action – business live

Boots sale could be revived as pension scheme is offloaded

Sarah Butler

Elsewhere in the UK this morning, Boots is paying £670m to offload its £4.8bn pension scheme to Legal & General.

The buy-in deal insures all 53,000 members in the Boots Pension Scheme, making it the largest single transaction of its kind ever in the UK, my colleague Sarah Butler explains.

To facilitate the deal, Boots will bring forward about £170m of already committed payments to the Scheme and has committed to pay extra contributions expected to be approximately £500 million.

The deal could help revive a process for the sale of Boots by its US owner Walgreens. An earlier sales plan was abandoned in June last year, and is thought to have been partly scotched by potential buyers’ concerns about Boots’ guarantees on the pension scheme that were thought to be worth billions of pounds.

John Ralfe, the independent pensions expert who once oversaw Boots’ pension scheme, said the buy-out deal was “good news for members” as there benefits would be unaffected and they were now supported by a “properly capitalised and regulated business.”

Full story: Thousands of HSBC customers in UK unable to access online banking services

Mark Sweney

Thousands of HSBC customers have reported that they have been unable to access its online and mobile banking services on one of the busiest online shopping days of the year as consumers swoop on Black Friday retail deals, my colleague Mark Sweney writes.

More here.

HSBC UK has now said it is “really sorry” about the disruption.

It also advises customers that they can use a one time passcode, sent by text message, to authorise an online card purchase if they’re having problems with their app.

HSBC UK customers hoping to take advantage of Black Friday have been hit by technical problems with their banking services.

HSBC says it is investigating the problems as “as a matter of urgency”, as customers report problems using its app or accessing online banking.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), HSBC says:

We understand some customers are having trouble accessing banking services as usual right now.

“We’re investigating this as a matter of urgency and will share an update as soon as possible.”

HSBC’s status page says “some customers are currently experiencing issues logging on to online and mobile banking”, adding that “We are working hard to fix this”.

The technical problems could make it harder for people to transfer money between accounts to pay bills, or to fund Black Friday spending.

Black Friday in the UK has got off to a brisk start, according to new payments data.

Nationwide reports that by 9am, its customers had made 1.49 million transactions – 15% more than a typical Friday.

That’s also 9% higher than on Black Friday 2022, they say.

Mark Nalder, Director of Payment Strategy at Nationwide Building Society, says bargain hunters are already out in force, adding:

“The number of purchases made by 9am is already nine per cent higher than the same period last year and suggests that this year’s Black Friday is going to be the busiest one ever.

The Bank of England’s chief economist has declared that the BoE can’t relent in its battle against high inflation just because there are signs of weakening economic activity.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Huw Pill said the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee cannot “declare victory and move on” now that inflation has dropped to 4.6% (which is still double its target).

Pill explained:

There’s slower growth in activity and employment as we’ve discussed. But because I think that is more supply-driven rather than demand-driven, the weakening of activity is not as associated with easing of inflationary pressures.”

This is the latest in a flurry of comments from BoE officials, which prompted Harriett Baldwin MP to accuse them of a “confusing running commentary” about interest rate policy.

Pill himself caused a stir earlier this month when he said market expectations of a rate cut next summer were “not totally unreasonable”.

BoE governor Andrew Bailey then tried to squash such talk, saying it was “far too early” to propose rate cuts.