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The Independent
25-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Reeves reveals plan to rip up banking regulations brought in after financial crash
Rachel Reeves has told senior economists and business leaders that she wants to rip up regulations on the financial services sector brought in after the 2008 financial crash. The chancellor has been desperately looking for ways to kickstart economic growth in the UK, which has flatlined since Labour came to power last July with the country teetering on the edge of going into recession. Speaking on a panel during a debate on the global economy in Washington DC on Thursday, Ms Reeves revealed that she believes now is the time to at least partly go back to pre-banking crisis regulations, in the hope it will inject much-needed growth into the City of London and financial markets. She said: 'Excessive regulation makes it hard for new entrants to come into market, puts up prices for consumers. 'So I do think that we've gone too far in one direction. And of course, after the financial crisis, we had to put in place a good, greater set of regulations than we had before, sure, but we are now what you know, getting on for 20 years since the financial crisis. And I do think we've got to think about that balance.' When major banks and financial institutions collapsed around the world in 2008 because they were overleveraged on the property markets, the then-Labour government in the UK was forced to bail out Lloyds, Halifax Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Gordon Brown's government had to nationalise Northern Rock and the collapse saw new red tape and regulations brought in to prevent a similar crisis from happening again. Internationally, the crisis saw whole countries' economies, including Greece and Ireland, having to be bailed out. But Ms Reeves, who until the debate had not indicated any major policy change on her trip to the International Monetary Fund conference of finance ministers in Washington DC, was clear that she considered financial regulation to be similar to environmental. She repeated Labour's plans to strip away protection for nature to allow new infrastructure and housing to be built. Pouring contempt on HS2's bat tunnel again, she also turned her ire on interventions to protect spiders and sea bream. She said: 'Environmental regulations are now the biggest barrier to investing in renewable energy in the UK. That is not the purpose of environmental regulations, but they're the things that are holding up pylons being built. 'They're stopping wind farms from being built. And the number of submissions, and we all get this as ministers, that we get in our boxes every day, that you know, I'm afraid that the minister had to block this wind farm development because of sea bream swimming in that part of the North Sea. 'Or there are some spiders which are unique to this area, which means you can't build the 1000s and 1000s of homes that we need. Or we've spent 100 million pounds in the UK in building a bat tunnel to go alongside the high-speed rail link between London and the north of England, because otherwise the bats would not be able to cross the road. 'I mean, it is absolutely insane the costs that are added to essential infrastructure investments.'
Observer
11-04-2025
- Business
- Observer
Former Russian minister jailed for UK sanctions breaches
LONDON: A former governor appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in illegally annexed Crimea has been sentenced by a British court to 40 months' imprisonment for circumventing sanctions, in the first case of its kind. Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, once the governor of Sevastopol, was convicted of having tens of thousands of pounds transferred into his newly opened Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) account by his wife, when he knew he was prohibited from doing so. Under the original asset freeze Ovsiannikov was not allowed to spend money even on basic necessities, and others were not permitted to assist him to do so. The case is the first prosecution in the UK regarding a breach of sanctions under the Russia Regulations 2019. These were imposed after the European Union sanctions ceased to have an effect in the UK post-Brexit. Ovsiannikov was found guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday of six out of seven counts of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024. He was sentenced at the same court on Friday to 40 months' imprisonment for each count to be served concurrently. The total amount of time Ovsiannikov will serve was reduced by the 217 days he has spent on curfew, and he will spend up to half of his sentence in custody before he is released on licence. His brother Alexei Owsjanikow, 47, was sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for the same amount of time after being convicted of two counts of circumventing sanctions by paying school fees of £41,027 ($53,700) for his sibling's children. Ovsiannikov's wife Ekaterina Ovsiannikova was cleared of four countsof circumventing sanctions by assisting with payments totalling £76,000 into her husband's Halifax account in February 2023. She sent him £1,000 and then a further three instalments of £25,000. Ovsiannikov waved to her after the sentence was handed out and she waved back and smiled. Ahead of sentencing, Rosemary Davidson, defending Ovsiannikov, told the judge that the entire family including the older children has been "de-banked" again after the press reported the conviction. "It's going to be a feature of their lives going forward", she said,adding that Dmitrii "has to live" with the fact this has significantly impacted "those nearest and dear to him". "That is also part of the consequences that he has to bear and continues to bear", she said. Sentencing the two men, Mrs Justice Cockerill said the "weight given" to the fact that the Russia-Ukraine war is ongoing "had to be fairly limited". She said their offending was on the "simple and candid end of the scale - a country mile from the kinds of structures seen in some fraud claims." The funds were transferred by family members into the Halifax bank account in Ovsiannikov's name and "no attempt was made to disguise"the payments, the judge added. The financial gain was "very limited indeed" and "each offence in the banking aspect related to no more than £25,000", she said. Addressing Owsjanikow, Mrs Justice Cockerill said there was "a clear motivation" to support the children as they transitioned to life in the UK and that was "plainly in the hearts of all those involved in this case". The offending was "well, rather than badly, intended in its dominant motive", she added. Putin appointed Ovsiannikov as the governor of Sevastopol in Crimea on July 28, 2016 in a "high-profile political appointment", the court previously heard. He took up the role two years after Russia illegally annexed theregion from Ukraine. - dpa
The Independent
11-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Former Russian minister jailed for UK sanctions breaches
A former governor appointed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in illegally annexed Crimea has been sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment for circumventing sanctions, in the first case of its kind. Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, once the governor of Sevastopol, was convicted of having tens of thousands of pounds transferred into a newly opened Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) account by his wife, when he knew he was prohibited from doing so. Ovsiannikov had also served as the Russian Federation's deputy minister for industry and trade before he was dismissed and expelled from the ruling United Russia party in 2020. Under the original asset freeze Ovsiannikov was not allowed to spend money even on basic necessities, and others were not permitted to assist him to do so. Ovsiannikov was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday of six out of seven counts of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024. He was sentenced at the same court on Friday to 40 months' imprisonment for each count to be served concurrently. The total amount of time Ovsiannikov will serve was reduced by the 217 days he has spent on curfew, and he will spend up to half of his sentence in custody before he is released on licence. His brother Alexei Owsjanikow, 47, was sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for 15 months after being convicted of two counts of circumventing sanctions by paying school fees of £41,027 for his sibling's children. The case is the first prosecution in the UK regarding a breach of sanctions under the Russia Regulations 2019. Sentencing the two men, Mrs Justice Cockerill said that the 'weight given' to the fact that the Russia-Ukraine war is ongoing 'had to be fairly limited'. The maximum sentence for breaching the Russia Regulations 2019 is seven years' imprisonment. Ovsiannikov was wearing a blue jumper and Owsjanikow a light-coloured casual jacket and both brothers brought packed bags into the dock. The jury failed to reach a verdict on the charge that Ovsiannikov deliberately avoided sanctions by opening the Halifax account. His wife Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, who was in the public gallery on Friday, has been cleared of four counts of circumventing sanctions by assisting with payments totalling £76,000 to her husband in February 2023. Owsjanikow was cleared of a further three counts of breaching sanctions including buying a Mercedes-Benz worth £54,500 and arranging car insurance for Ovsiannikov.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former Russian minister jailed for UK sanctions breaches
A former governor appointed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in illegally annexed Crimea has been sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment for circumventing sanctions, in the first case of its kind. Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, once the governor of Sevastopol, was convicted of having tens of thousands of pounds transferred into a newly opened Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) account by his wife, when he knew he was prohibited from doing so. Ovsiannikov had also served as the Russian Federation's deputy minister for industry and trade before he was dismissed and expelled from the ruling United Russia party in 2020. Under the original asset freeze Ovsiannikov was not allowed to spend money even on basic necessities, and others were not permitted to assist him to do so. Ovsiannikov was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday of six out of seven counts of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024. He was sentenced at the same court on Friday to 40 months' imprisonment for each count to be served concurrently. The total amount of time Ovsiannikov will serve was reduced by the 217 days he has spent on curfew, and he will spend up to half of his sentence in custody before he is released on licence. His brother Alexei Owsjanikow, 47, was sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for 15 months after being convicted of two counts of circumventing sanctions by paying school fees of £41,027 for his sibling's children. The case is the first prosecution in the UK regarding a breach of sanctions under the Russia Regulations 2019. Sentencing the two men, Mrs Justice Cockerill said that the 'weight given' to the fact that the Russia-Ukraine war is ongoing 'had to be fairly limited'. The maximum sentence for breaching the Russia Regulations 2019 is seven years' imprisonment. Ovsiannikov was wearing a blue jumper and Owsjanikow a light-coloured casual jacket and both brothers brought packed bags into the dock. The jury failed to reach a verdict on the charge that Ovsiannikov deliberately avoided sanctions by opening the Halifax account. His wife Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, who was in the public gallery on Friday, has been cleared of four counts of circumventing sanctions by assisting with payments totalling £76,000 to her husband in February 2023. Owsjanikow was cleared of a further three counts of breaching sanctions including buying a Mercedes-Benz worth £54,500 and arranging car insurance for Ovsiannikov.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In first such case, Russia's ex-proxy in Crimea convicted of breaching UK sanctions
Dmitry Ovsiannikov, formerly a Russian-installed head of occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, was found guilty on April 9 of violating British sanctions in the first such ruling. A London court found the 48-year-old guilty of circumventing sanctions between February 2023 and January 2024 on six out of seven counts. Ovsiannikov has been accused of opening a Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) account on or before February 2023 and having his wife, Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, transfer tens of thousands of pounds to it. His brother, Alexei Owsjanikow, was convicted of two counts of sanctions breach. Ovsiannikov was appointed as chief of the occupation administration in Sevastopol in 2017, the same year he was placed on the U.K. and EU sanctions lists. He held the post until 2019, when he resigned amid criticism of his work. The Russian official, who also previously served as a deputy trade minister before being dismissed and expelled from the ruling United Russia party in 2020, moved to London in 2023 and acquired a British passport despite existing sanctions. This marks the first prosecution case based on the U.K.'s Russian Regulations of 2019, the Guardian reported. The U.K. imposed targeted sanctions on Russia in coordination with other partners in 2014 in response to Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea, further tightening the sanctions regime after the outbreak of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Over 1,700 individuals and 380 entities are sanctioned under the U.K.'s Russia regime as of 2025. Read also: 'Supporting Ukraine is America first' — Trump's spiritual advisor, Pastor Mark Burns We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
