Good news only, please

At the moment, politicians across the world – especially, it seems, in the UK – are in the spotlight regarding their tax affairs. Banks, however, will also soon be in the spotlight, as by Friday 15th April they have been told to hand any information regarding their dealings with the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers over to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.

As a result, pressure is growing on the City watchdog to launch a full-blown investigation into these explosive claims.

It has already become clear that nearly all of the major banks are involved to some degree, with a few well known Banks such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Coutts and Rothschild’s standing out more than others.

HSBC and The Local Government Pension Scheme are the latest Defined Benefit Pension Schemes to cause upset and worry to thousands of soon-to-be retirees.

Firstly, HSBC has come under fire for cutting the pension payouts of its former staff by up to £2,500 a year, affecting 50,000 members who joined the company between 1975 and 1996. This group had opted to pay less national insurance (NI) contributions whilst working by “contracting out” of the former state pension scheme. This meant that HSBC also paid less NI contributions. In exchange for paying a lower rate, the bank agreed to pay staff a guaranteed minimum pension when they came to retire. Payment records were however not properly maintained leading pensioners to be either overpaid or underpaid. Numerous firms, including HSBC, had used this arrangement and when the errors were discovered, some began to cut pension payouts to compensate for the overpayment.