Crypto News: The London rush: Wise CEO fined

Morning, I'm Louise Moon from Bloomberg UK's breaking news team, bringing you up to speed on today's top business stories.

The boss of a leading fintech app has been fined for failing to be open about his own taxes. How's that for a Monday morning.

Kristo Käärmann, the founder and CEO of money transfer app Wise, was fined £350,000 by the financial regulator. It wraps up a two-year probe into him being on an HMRC list for defaulting on his taxes and not telling the FCA about it.

While the regulator says he remains fit and proper to continue running Wise and did not find that he acted with a "a lack of integrity," it made sure to make a point. The fine would have been just under £41,500, but the FCA wanted to "ensure that it delivers credible deterrence." Punchy.

What's your take? Ping me on X, LinkedIn or drop me an email at lmoon13@bloomberg.net. Oh, and do subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted business journalism on the UK, and beyond.

Lloyds is assessing the impact of a court ruling that lenders weren't transparent enough to customers taking out car loans. Banks are facing paying out billions.

Trainline boosted its full-year revenue forecast based on the company's efforts to scale the business. Ticket sales grew 14% in the first half, to £3 billion. Shares popped about 6%.

Vacancies in London are stuck below pre-Covid levels as hybrid working creates less demand for shop assistants and baristas near offices.

And: welcome to budget week. Keir Starmer will say Labour will "embrace the harsh light of fiscal reality" in a speech later today. In a decade-defining budget aiming to stabilise public finances, Reeves is due to announce as much as £40 billion in tax hikes and spending savings, plus a revamp of the fiscal rules. It'll raise the tax burden to the greatest since World War II and lift debt even further from a 60-year high.

Boeing to raise over $15 billion as soon as today, giving a liquidity boost.
Trump's six-hour NYC rally was shrouded by controversial, incendiary rhetoric.
Japan's Ishiba vows to restore stability after losing majority in first since 2009.

Here's your daily snap analysis from Bloomberg UK's Markets Today blog:

Oil prices sliding will probably create another day when the FTSE 100 lags behind other European indexes because of the impact of BP and Shell.

The pair make up about 11% of the whole index, so the direction both move has a significant influence on how the FTSE 100 performs. In between earnings seasons, the fluctuations in oil prices have determined how the pair have fared. With at least one geopolitical concern eased, the focus will come back to fundamentals.

This week, the two oil majors will be among four of the FTSE 100's ten largest companies — alongside lender HSBC and drugmaker GSK — that will report results. Overall, that quartet is 20% of the index, so may well play a big part in how the UK benchmark performs.

— Sam Unsted

Check Bloomberg UK's Markets Today blog for updates all day.

The pace of buybacks is expected to slow in BP's third quarter, with it having already flagged weak oil-products trading and lower margins from processing crude.

It also expects net debt to have risen, which comes on top of weaker macroeconomic prospects in 2025.

Alice Albizzati is the founding partner of Revaia, a sustainability-focused growth fund that manages €400 million and has offices in Paris, London and Berlin. We met her at Caravan City, just before she hopped back on the Eurostar.

What is your favourite lunch spot? I really enjoy Lurra, a Basque restaurant. The food is really good and the atmosphere very friendly.

How do you save time? By investing enough time into this question, speaking with a coach and trying to understand how my schedule is planned so I can challenge the way I'm doing things. The time spent thinking about how to save time is not wasted.

What is the worst investment decision you've made? Not investing in a company that became a huge success, because of wrong assumptions. One that comes to mind that had a great growth trajectory is Depop. It's the beauty of our job, where sometimes we do not make the right decision but we always take away the lessons.

On big days, I wear? Things that are with me all the time, like jewellery from my mother and grandmother. I also like to rent clothes so I have something pretty unique. I like this combination of old and new.

What are you reading? I've just finished reading Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, which I find very modern and inspiring for women.

On my commute, I… ride my bike and take advantage of this moment to get some fresh air. It enables me to switch from home to work and just empty my mind.

How do you switch off? By carving out time to take care of myself and my family. That could mean doing a pilates or yoga class, going to the swimming pool, playing the piano, or spending quality time with my children.

What do you wish someone had told you at the start of your career? To see my career as a huge opportunity to do different things and to be bold in my choices, because all the dots will connect in the end.

— Chloe Meley

Which Puerto Rican rapper expressed support for Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend after a speaker at a Trump rally called the US territory a "floating island of garbage"?

Hint: he is one of the most streamed artists on Spotify.

[Friday's answer: Official figures say just over 9% of the British public now buy and use vapes.]

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