 Fed raises interest rates to highest level in 22 years | Battle to control inflation is not over, warns Jerome Powell 2) | Meta's sales jump suggests advertisers may be switching their spending from Twitter 3) NatWest chairman under pressure to resign as Farage row wipes £850m off value | Investors are concerned that Sir Howard Davies, who has led the bank's board since 2015, has lost authority at NatWest 4) GB News owner's hedge fund nets millions betting against NatWest | Marshall Wace started shorting the bank's stock amid global banking jitters earlier this year 5) Vauxhall owner warns of Chinese 'invasion' of electric car market | Stellantis boss says carmaker will struggle to compete with cheap Chinese EVs What happened overnight Asian shares were higher after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to their highest level in more than two decades, just as Wall Street expected. Regional attention has focused on whether Japan's central bank might alter its longstanding ultra-lax monetary policy at a policy meeting that ends on Friday. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index gained 0.4pc to 32806.18 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 1.3pc to 19,613.18. The Shanghai Composite index was up 0.8pc at 3,237,13. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.8pc to 7,460.60. South Korea's Kospi climbed 0.5pc to 2,603.08. Bangkok's SET was down 0.1pc and Taiwan's benchmark gained 0.4pc. Last night, Wall Street stocks were mixed after the Federal Reserve increased interest rates by a quarter of a percent to between 5.25pc and 5.5pc. The S&P 500 was flat at 4,566.75, remaining near a 15-month high, while the Dow){kind=link}
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NatWest was the subject of the joint most complaints over decisions to close bank accounts last year, data show, a day after its boss resigned following a scandal over the closure of Nigel Farage’s Coutts account.
Customers complained about NatWest and rival Barclays 274 times each in 2022/23, figures supplied to Bloomberg showed. This includes cases linked to NatWest’s Royal Bank of Scotland brand.
The data from the Financial Ombudsman Service, the independent body that settles issues between customers and lenders, show NatWest was the most complained-about bank for the past three years in terms of account closures, although the absolute number for all the lenders is a fraction of the millions of accounts they each service.
It comes after Dame Alison Rose resigned on Wednesday after discussing Mr Farage’s account with a BBC journalist, wiping £850m off the value of the lender.