Ana Botin and Andrea Orcel come face to face in Santander court battle
The former UBS boss is suing the Spanish bank, which hired him to be the chief executive before changing its mind because he cost too much
Andrea Orcel and Santander chairman Ana Patricia in a Madrid court on Wednesday
Ana Botín, the Santander chairman, has argued that Andrea Orcel never received a contract to become its chief executive as a court battle over the bank’s decision to change its mind on hiring him begins in Madrid.
The Spanish lender, which has a big UK presence, offered the UBS banker the top job in late 2018 after he had spent more than two decades advising Santander. During that time he developed a close relationship with the wealthy Botín family, who founded and continue to run the bank.
NatWest charged me £600 to hold two sheets of paper
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help
17 May 2021 • 6:00am
Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help. For how to contact her click here.
Dear Sally,
I have a private account with NatWest, with whom I have banked for decades. Recently, I was going through my statements and discovered that I had been charged £50 a year – two payments of £25 each – since 2009 for something called “safe custody hold”. Before 2009, there were no charges.
I rang the bank to ask what these charges were for, and was told they were for two A4 envelopes that had been held at the bank since 1995. I have subsequently visited the Wilmslow branch to reclaim the envelopes to find they contained two out-of-date wills made in 1986.
The move represents one of the most flexible approaches to post-pandemic working adopted by a major employer
17 May 2021 • 1:14pm
Accounting firm BDO has told its 5,500 staff that they can work where they want post-pandemic, in the latest sign that a significant proportion of white collar workers will not return to city centres when Covid restrictions are fully lifted.
The UK s fifth biggest accountant said it would ask employees to work wherever they feel they can be most productive depending on the task they are doing, which will most likely involve a mix of working from home, in the office and on client sites.
Never mind the Bitcoin madness: inflation is a far bigger worry for investors
Too much easy money is chasing too many flaky investment ideas - it s all a bit too much like the late 1990s for my liking
17 May 2021 • 11:00am
Elon Musk has replaced Donald Trump as the world’s most influential tweeter. Whatever you think of the controversial Tesla boss, you can’t ignore him any more than you could the former President.
Last week’s Twitter bomb saw Musk pull an abrupt U-turn on Tesla’s highly public support only three months ago for bitcoin, suspending plans for the electric car maker to accept the best-known cryptocurrency as payment and apparently rowing back from its use in the company’s treasury operations.