that was andy verity.rector of the centre for financial crime and security studies at rusi and briefed on the broad outlines of the fincen story. he was an investment banker atjp morgan for 20 years rebecca jones has been speaking to him. the suspicious activity report regime is the fundamental pillar on which anti—money laundering efforts are meant to be founded and it was created 25 years ago, and in many ways we are still using the same system as we had 25 years ago. the problem is that you and i can transfer money at the tap of a app, but the system was created when it took four or five days to transfer money around the world, so there was time for banks to study whose money is going where. nowadays, that is very challenging. what constitutes suspicious activity? there are a whole range of reasons. if you go home this evening and you send £9,000 to three different friends, that might be suspicious. why did you do three £9,000 transactions in half an hour? maybe it is money coming to you from a company

our economics correspondent andy verity, many thanks. alex forsyth is in westminster now. the chancellor calls it a radical intervention. does it go far enough? rito, the chancellor has been under growing pressure to come up with something to replace the furlough scheme which is due to end next month and i think it's worth saying that this wasn't a direct reaction to the extra restrictions we saw put into place earlier this week, but i think is the government has given this sense that this virus is going to be around for a while and that's obviously going to have an impact on the economy has new restrictive measures are put in place, then that pressure did grow a bit on the chancellor to come up with something to mitigate it, so this is his answer. the sense the government wa nts to answer. the sense the government wants to try and support businesses that might be struggling through the next few months, to keep people on the books where it can, also with extending the time it has to repay back loans and of course maintaining that vat cut

andy verity reports.'s most closely guarded secrets. in one example, a payment of $8 million, flagged as suspicious, was sent to a russian businessman living in britain, vladimir chernukhin, in 2016. it initially came from this man, suleyman kerimov, a billionaire ally of president putin. in 2018, he was sanctioned by the us who were targeting those they said played a key role in advancing russia's malign activities. mr chernukhin's wife, lubov chernukhin, has become famous for donating large sums to the conservative party in exchange for tennis matches with david cameron and borisjohnson and paying £135,000 for a night out with theresa may. in total, she has donated £1.7 million, most of it since her husband received the $8 million from kerimov. the chernukhins, pleasant people though they may be, are not fit and proper people to make donations to a british political party and it looks and feels and is really troubling if you see that people are paying money into the conservative party coffers and gettin

andy verity reports.eak, thousands of reports of suspicious activity filed by banks to alert us authorities were leaked to buzzfeed news and passed to the international consortium of investigativejournalists and bbc panorama. they reveal some of the international banking system's most closely guarded secrets. in one example, a payment of $8 million flagged as suspicious was sent to a russian businessman and former minister living in britain, vladimir chernukhin, in 2016. it initially came from this man, suleiman kerimov, a billionaire ally of president putin. in 2018 he was sanctioned by the us who were targeting those they said played a key role in advancing russia's malign activities. mr chernukhin‘s wife, lubov chernukhin, has become famous for donating large sums to the conservative party in exchange for tennis matches with david cameron and boris johnson. and paying £135,000 for a night out with theresa may. in total, she's donated £1.7 million. most of it since her husband received the $8 million fr

lots of questions about the chancellor's announcements yesterday, and our economics correspondent andy verityem. andy... we have had a question from phil who asks how does this affect those in the entertainment industry? really interesting question. the entertainment industry has had a helluva time in a particular nightclubs, anyone in the events industry has had a really difficult time for the last six months. at least they have had, for example, the furlough scheme but that is going away. the question is whether they can access this new scheme. the a nswer they can access this new scheme. the answer from the government is, well, if you are viable. what does that mean? it is up to the employer to decide. if you are firm and entertainment industry, you have got to work out whether you can make enough income to cover more than half of your employees normal hours because you have to pay 55% even if they only do one third of their normal hours. the question is, can you get more than half of your normal revenues because if you can't, then this job support scheme isn't really going to help you. th

our economics correspondent, andy verity, explained how british banks were implicated by the leaked documents speaking to my colleague rebecca jones. july 2012, a senate committee published a devastating report about hsbc, saying it was being used as a conduit for drug kingpins and rogue nations. and specifically, that spectacular failures of oversight had led to launderers to launder drug money, notjust any drug traffickers, this was a cartel made famous in the netflix series el chapo. so a really serious problem. theyjust got off prosecution for that and we only found out four years later, in 2016, that george osborne, the then chancellor, had intervened on their behalf, seeking to help them avoid criminal prosecution. saying that if they were prosecuted it might present threats to financial stability. instead they had a five year probation period where they had to keep their nose clean, and yet, we found out only from this week that this stuff was going on in that period. am i right there is a lot more to this than just one bank? oh, yes, hsbc is by no means the only bank singled out here.

recovered just over half the output lost because of anti—virus measures. 0ur economics correspondent andy verityonce prohibited activity, drinking and eating in pubs and restaurants, was finally allowed again. just as banning drinking and eating out shrunk this part of the economy from april untiljune, lifting the ban helped activity recover, jumping by 140% injuly. construction companies and sites like this were running at and sites like this were running at a quarter of normal capacity in the spring, but now staff are back from furlough ina spring, but now staff are back from furlough in a sector where activity soared by 18%. i think local businesses really appreciate seeing the construction industry at the forefront of the recovery, of the bounce back. it is palpable, the city is coming back to life, led by the construction industry. in construction, as in the rest of the economy, extraordinary growth in july is nowhere near enough to make up july is nowhere near enough to make upfor july is nowhere near enough to make up for the extraordinary shrinkage from april to june. the up for the extr

economy, the combined figure forjune and july, was more than 300,000. 0ur economics correspondent andy verityst some of the well—known companies who announced redundancies injune and companies who announced redundancies in june and july. the job companies who announced redundancies injune and july. the job cuts hitting the headlines were a tiny fraction ofjobs hitting the headlines were a tiny fraction of jobs lost hitting the headlines were a tiny fraction ofjobs lost and official unemployment numbers haven't yet ca ptu red unemployment numbers haven't yet captured the impact of the pandemic. instead the more up—to—date picture emerges from forms that are filed with the insolvency service if they plan to make more than 20 redundant, saying how many jobs plan to make more than 20 redundant, saying how manyjobs they want to cut. the bbc freedom of information request discovered that injury in 1888 employers plan to cutjobs. in july a further 1784 gave notice of plans to cut nearly 150,000 jobs. many more people will have been made redundant from smaller companies, pushing the overall number of

let's speak to our economics correspondent andy verity.bout hsbc there — but they had already been in trouble, hadn't they? when this was happening, they were sort of on probation. in 2012, july 2012, a senate committee punt published a devastating report about hsbc, saying it was being used as a conduit for drug kingpins and rogue nations. specifically, the spectacular failures of oversight had led the bank to permit drug traffickers to launder $881 million of drug money, notjust any drug traffickers either, this was a drug cartel made famous in the netflix series l chapel. a really serious problem. they just series l chapel. a really serious problem. theyjust got a prop prosecution for that. in 2016, george osborne, the then chancellor had intervened on their behalf, seeking to help them avoid criminal prosecution, saying that if they we re prosecution, saying that if they were prosecuted, it might present threats to financial stability. as a result, they had a deferred prosecution instead. a five year probation period where they had to

andy verity reports.usands of reports of suspicious activity filed by banks to alert us authorities were leaked

here‘s our economics correspondent, andy verity.tion companies on sites like this one in birmingham‘s business district were running at a quarter of normal capacity in the spring, but now its staff are back from furlough. i think the local businesses really appreciate seeing the construction industry at the forefront of the recovery and the bounce back. it's palpable, the city is going back to life and it is being led by the construction industry. but in construction, as with the rest of the economy, extraordinary growth injuly is still nowhere near enough to make up for the extraordinary shrinkage of activity. the economy is bouncing strongly, but the line on this chart shows it is fairly recovered half of the output it lost. it is really going to take the balance of this year and left before we can recover the ground that is lost. so 2020, we are still going to have an economy that could be one tenth smaller, 10% smaller, than what we had in 2019. and that has implications forjob prospects and the wealth and opportunity for the ma

andy verity, bbc news.rant newsomejoints grant newsome joints me grant newsomejoints me and is an expert in the field. welcome to the programme. if i can get your reaction to these linked documents and what they show us. documents and what they show us. i wasn't surprised and i don't think anyone who follows theissues don't think anyone who follows the issues are surprised by anything they revealed. this has been a long—standing problem in the financial industry around the world, including london, the us, so this is nothing new. you really have some structural of them is that need to be addressed before there is any real progress made on this. in terms of london being a hub for money laundering, your views and thoughts on that and what this means going forward going for london? it's been a long time since london has a reputation for anything goes, anyone is welcome as long as they have money. you remember when the immolation airliner was shot down over ukraine, there was a quote from a banker in the city, t

andy verity reports.ted leak, thousands of reports of suspicious act beauty filed by banks to alert us authorities —— suspicious activity. were passed to the international consortium of infected —— investigative journalist and international consortium of infected —— investigativejournalist and bbc panorama. they reveal the bank's closely guarded secrets. payment of $8 million flagged as suspicious was sent to a russian businessman former minister living in britain, in 2016. it initially came from this man. a billionaire ally of president putin. in 2018 he was a change and by the us who were targeting those they said played a key role in advancing russia's malign activities. the man's wife had become famous for donating large sums to the conservative party in exchange for tennis matches with david cameron and boris johnson. tennis matches with david cameron and borisjohnson. and paying £135,000 for a night out with theresa may. in total, she has donated £1.7 million. most of it since her husband received t

andy verity, bbc news.s more. time beginning to run out and an extraordinary admission today from the northern ireland secretary that the northern ireland secretary that the government knew bill amending the government knew bill amending the eu withdrawal agreement does break international law although he said only in a specific and limited way? that's right, ben. it's not something you hear everyday in the house of commons, a government minister saying they are prepared to break the law. this shadows the eighth round of trade talks between the uk and eu with no agreement insight and the prime minister setting a deadline of men october to get a trade deal through and certainly the atmosphere i don't think we'll have been helped by the comments in the house of commons today. there has been speculation over the last couple of days that a government bill to be published tomorrow is called the internal market bill about trade between the four nations of the uk once the transition period comes to an end on decem

our economics correspondent andy verity reports.—date figures emerges from forms that employers have to file with insolvency services if they plan to make more than 20 people redundant, saying how many jobs they want to cut. the freedom of information request discovered that injune 1,888 employers plan to cut 156,000 jobs. and then injuly, a further 1,784 employers gave notice of plans to cut nearly 150,000 jobs. because many more will have been made redundant from smaller companies, the overall number ofjob cuts is likely to have been substantially higher, and with the furlough scheme drawing to a close in less than two months, further redundancies are widely expected in august and september. the last two journalists working for australian media in china have flown home after a five—day diplomatic standoff, during which police demanded to interview them. bill birtles, the australian broadcasting corporation's correspondent based in beijing, and mike smith, the australian financial review‘s correspondent based in shanghai, boarded a

as businesses were planning to axe during the same period last year. 0ur economics correspondent andy verityrk benefits have jumped in the pandemic but because many were not seeking work are available for it and lockdown they we re available for it and lockdown they were not counted as unemployed and a more up—to—date emerges from forms that employers have two file with insolvency services if they plan to make more than 20 people redundant saying how many jobs make more than 20 people redundant saying how manyjobs they want to cut. the freedom of information request discovered that injune 1888 request discovered that injune1888 employers plan to cut 156,000 jobs. and then in july, employers plan to cut 156,000 jobs. and then injuly, a further 178a employers gave notice of plans to cut nearly 150,000 jobs. because many more will have been made redundant from smaller companies, the overall number of job redundant from smaller companies, the overall number ofjob cuts is likely to have been substantially higher and with the furlough scheme drawing to a close in less than two months, further redu