Shares in UK banks are falling this morning as the sector fears it could be targeted in the autumn budget.NatWest (-3.7%), Lloyds Banking Group (-2.8%) and Barclays (-2.3%) are leading the fallers on the FTSE 100 share index, reflecting rising concerns that chancellor Rachel Reeves could target banks to help shore up the UK’s public finances.

The IPPR think tank is this morning proposing that Rachel Reeves should levy a new bank tax.They argue that a “Thatcher-style tax on bank windfalls” could raise billions for public services.The IPPR points out that the UK government is currently spending billions of pounds a year compensating the Bank of England for losses on its quantitative easing programme, which is now being unwound.The BoE is also paying out higher interest rates on banks’ reserves than it is receiving on the bonds it still owns through QE.In total, these losses amount to a £22bn-a-year hit to the public finances, according to the IPPR, which is calling for the Treasury to tax the big banks on their QE-related reserves.

Carsten Jung, associate director for economic policy at IPPR, said:“The Bank of England and Treasury bungled the implementation of quantitative easing.What started as a programme to boost the economy is now a massive drain on taxpayer money.Public money is flowing straight into commercial banks’ coffers because of a flawed policy design.While families struggle with rising costs, the government is effectively writing multi-billion-pound cheques to bank shareholders.“This is not how QE was meant to work – and no other major economy does it this way.

A targeted levy, inspired by Margaret Thatcher’s own approach in the 1980s, would recoup some these windfalls and put the money to far better use – helping people and the economy, not just bank balance sheets,”The Financial Times reports that fears are growing in the City of London that Reeves could announce a surcharge on the banking sector’s profits, or a new bank levy,One City figure told the FT:“We aren’t stupid,There’s a bunch of Labour MPs, including Angela Rayner, who are looking for ways to get more money,Financial services are an obvious target.

”Financial Times: City fears mount over Reeves’ tax raidon banks to help fill £20bn fiscal hole #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/WsCSMGft2IAnd finally… the London stock market has closed, with losses across the UK banking sector.The possibility that Rachel Reeves might bring in new taxes on the sector in this autumn’s budget has sparked a wave of selling.NatWest ended the day as the FTSE 100’s biggest faller, down 4.

85%.Lloyds Banking Group (-3.3%) and Barclays (-2.2%) ended in the list of top fallers, along with UK retailers JD Sports (-4%) and Kingfisher (-2.2%).

HSBC lost 1%.The falls mean that over £6bn was wiped off the UK banking sector today, as fresh calls for a windfall tax on large lenders in the autumn budget spooked investors.As my colleague Kalyeena Makortoff explains:Calls for a tax grab, in a paper written by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank, took a toll on some of the UK’s biggest high street banks.The IPPR’s report calls for a new tax on the big banks that would help to recover “windfalls” enjoyed by lenders as a result of an emergency economic policy known as quantitative easing, which was put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.The policy involved the Bank of England buying up £895bn of bonds from the UK’s banks and crediting them with reserves at the Bank.

Those reserves subsequently accrued interest at the central bank’s base interest rate: currently at 4%.On that note, goodnight! GWAnother tax raising option for Rachel Reeves is to make landlords pay National Insurance on their rental income.It emerged yesterday that the Treasury was considering a tax on landlords that will target income from rents, as part of the autumn budget.YouGov have just release a poll which shows the measure could be popular with voters.Nearly half of those polled said they supported the idea, while just 27% opposed it, and 25% didn’t know.

Donald Trump’s elimination of the de minimis shipping exemption that allowed low-value packages to arrive to the US without trade duties is likely to hurt many UK businesses.The Institute of Directors has found that roughly 30% of its members that export to the US are expecting some impact from the US decision to remove the de minimis threshold, which came into effect today.Previously, most exports under $800 entered the US duty-free under a simplified process, but Trump has now closed this option.Emma Rowland, trade policy advisor at the Institute of Directors, said:“The additional tariff charge, customs documentation and data requirements at the border only compound the administrative burden for firms already grappling with an uncertain exporting landscape.This is a move that will predominantly impact smaller firms which do not necessarily have the resources to assume extra complexity in their international business.

The former Bank of England deputy governor Minouche Shafik is set to join Keir Starmer’s team as chief economic adviser.In a boost to the prime minister’s office in the run-up to the autumn budget, Lady Shafik is expected to take on the role after a year heading a Foreign Office review of the government’s foreign aid spending.A member of the House of Lords, Shafik resigned last year as the president of Columbia University after criticism of the treatment of Jewish students during anti-Isreal protests at the institution’s New York campus.Shafik was previously head of the London School of Economics, a deputy governor of the International Monetary Fund and the top civil servant at the Foreign Office.In 2019 she was touted as a possible contender to replace Mark Carney as the Bank of England’s governor.

Another blow to the White House: US consumer confidence took a dive last month.The University of Michigan has reported that its Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 5.7% this month, to 58.2 points, down from 61.7 in July.

Consumers become gloomier about current economic conditions, and the outlook for the economy.Surveys of Consumers director Joanne Hsu says:Consumer sentiment confirmed its early-month reading, moving down about 6% from July.Sentiment now stands about 11% above readings from April and May but remains at least 10% below 6 and 12 months ago.This month’s decrease was visible across groups by age, income, and stock wealth.Moreover, perceptions of many aspects of the economy slipped.

Buying conditions for durable goods subsided to their lowest reading in a year, and current personal finances declined 7%, both due to heightened concerns about high prices.Expectations for business conditions and labor markets contracted in August as well.That said, expectations for personal finances held steady this month, albeit at relatively subdued levels relative to a year agoBack in the US, a key measure of inflation has risen.US PCE core inflation, seen as the Federal Reserve’s favourite inflation measure, has risen to 2.9% in July on an annual basis, up from 2.

8% in June.In line with consensus forecasts but high if 2% is the Fed’s true inflation target:US PCE core inflation, often known as the Federal Reserve’s favorite measure, edged higher to 2.9% in July as the increase in service sector prices picked up to its hottest rate in five months.… pic.twitter.

com/xgdBZuHDOBCanada’s economy has been dragged to the brink of recession by Donald Trump’s trade war, in an headache for prime minister Mark Carney,Real gross domestic product (GDP) across Canada declined by 0,4% in the second quarter of 2025, the country’s statistics office has reported, following a 0,5% gain in the first quarter,Statistics Canada explains:The contraction in the second quarter was driven by significant declines in the export of goods, as well as decreased business investment in machinery and equipment.

These declines were tempered by faster accumulations of business inventories, higher household spending and lower imports of goods.Canada has been sparring with the Trump White House for months; in March, Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US in response to new tariffs on steel and aluminum.Last week, Carney said some countertariffs would be dropped, as Ottawa tried to end the trade war.Newsflash: America’s trade deficit with the rest of the world widened sharply last month, as more goods poured into the US.The US international trade deficit rose by 22% in July to $103.

6bn in July, new data from the US Census Bureau shows.That’s an increase of $18.7bn compared with June’s deficit of $84.9bn.The increase was due to a surge of imports into the US last month.

That could be due to companies trying to front-run the latest tariffs from Donald Trump, which kicked in at the start of August.Imports of goods in July rose to $281.5bn, $18.6bn more than in June.Exports of goods for July were $178.

0bn, $100m less than June exports.Bank lobby group UK Finance (unsurprisingly) oppose another tax on the sector, saying:“Banks based here already pay both a corporation tax surcharge and a bank levy.“Adding another tax would make the UK less internationally competitive and run counter to the government’s aim of supporting the financial services sector.”UK house sales rose last month as activity continued its recovery following the end of the stamp duty holiday.Official figures from HM Revenue and Customs showed property transaction rose 1% month-on-month in July.

It said there were 95,580 property sales last month, a 4% increase against July last year, following an increase in June.This recovery followed a notable drop in house sales after changes to the stamp duty threshold at the start of April.The Serious Fraud Office has admitted today that the convictions of five former traders for interest rate rigging may be unsafe.Following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the conviction of two traders, Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo last month, the SFO has looked at other cases involving the rigging of the Libor and Euribor rates.It says:We consider that the jury directions, given at Hayes’ and subsequently Palombo’s trial and which were the basis of the court’s judgment, may apply to Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon, Philippe Moryoussef and Colin Bermingham’s trials.

Therefore, their convictions may be considered unsafe.India’s economy grew faster than expected over the summer, new data shows, despite the threat of the Trump trade war.India’s GDP expanded by 7.8% year-on-year in the April-June quarter, picking up from 7.4% in the previous three months, data released today showed.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a slowdown in growth to 6.7%.Over in Germany, the number of unemployed people has hit three million for the first time in a decade.A total of 3.02 million people were unemployed in August in seasonally unadjusted terms, with an increase of 46,000 in the number of people out of work from the previous month.

Labour office head Andrea Nahles says:“The labor market is still shaped by the economic slump of recent years.”If you account for seasonal factors, though, the number of unemployed decreased by 9,000 to 2.96 million.Even so, the rise in joblessness intensifies the pressure on chancellor Friedrich Merz to reform and stimulate the German economy.Speaking in France today, Merz responded to the data:“The rise in unemployment is not unexpected.

However, the figure illustrates how necessary reforms are for more growth and employability.The German government will focus on this.”The bank share selloff has gathered pace.NatWest are now down 4.7%, followed by Lloyds (-4