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FCA to tell lenders to extend payment freeze on car finance and high-cost credit

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New and nearly new cars are displayed for sale on a forecourt of a car dealership. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
New and nearly new cars are displayed for sale on a forecourt of a car dealership. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Friday indicated that it will tell rent-to-own firms, car finance providers, and pawnbrokers to keep offering payment freezes to borrowers in financial difficulty in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Under extended proposals, customers who have yet to request a payment freeze would also have until 31 October to do so, the FCA said.

Under a payment holiday announced in April, the FCA ordered firms to give drivers a three-month freeze on payments if the pandemic had left them in temporary financial difficulty. It told firms not to end agreements or repossess vehicles for such customers.

READ MORE: Quiet end to the week for stocks as US coronavirus numbers in focus

Firms offering rent-to-own, “buy now, pay later” and pawnbroking agreements were also

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No politics, please! Hong Kong finance professionals impose self-censorship after security law

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By Sumeet Chatterjee and Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A year ago, growing anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong were a hot topic in conversations among bankers, lawyers and other investment professionals in one of the world’s biggest and freest financial hubs.

On Thursday, two days after China imposed a controversial new security law on the city, you could almost hear a pin drop. Bankers were tight lipped, shunning any mention of the legislation over the phone or messaging apps in a sign of how much disquiet it has triggered.

More than half a dozen people Reuters spoke to said they chose not to talk about the impact of the law on their businesses with their colleagues and external contacts, though there had been no such official instruction from their respective organizations.

The sweeping legislation pushed the semi-autonomous city, which is the regional home for a large number of global

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South Korea Finance Minister Sees Third Extra Budget as Last

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(Bloomberg) — South Korean Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki sees a third extra budget pending approval in parliament as the last for this year and said the economic shock from the coronavirus pandemic may have bottomed.

South Korea’s economy can still avoid its first annual contraction in more than two decades if stimulus measures including the latest supplementary budget get carried out quickly enough to build on the momentum of improving exports and consumer confidence, Hong said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.

“We are seeing signs of consumption and exports recovering from May,” said Hong, who also serves as deputy prime minister. “What’s more important than pouring out more measures and money is ensuring that the third extra budget and the series of measures taken in the first half feed through.”

The government has so far pledged more than 270 trillion won ($225 billion), or roughly 14% of its

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Brett Conti left his unfulfilling finance job and started a skateboard empire

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When Brett Conti started his internship at a finance firm, he knew almost immediately that this was not the career path he wanted. 

“I didn’t just want to be a robot,” Conti told In The Know. “I wanted to do something much bigger.”

A big part of his life up to that point had been skateboarding, but he did it for fun and had no intention of turning that hobby into a full-time job.

But when he was injured and had to take a break for six months, he turned to another creative passion of his: Clothing. Bored and feeling stuck in his college dorm, he started making pocket t-shirts and hats with his grandmother’s sewing machine.

Conti’s grandfather owned a textile company and Conti grew up learning about different fabrics and the fundamentals of creating clothes. Again, this was another interest of his that he never planned on turning

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