01/08/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson

A culture of profit no matter what still exists in our banks

according to Britain's biggest ever rogue trader.

In his very first broadcast interview Kweku Adoboli

Live from London, that's our top story on Monday 1st August.

The rogue trader who was described as being just a gamble or two away

from destroying UBS and lost $2.2 billion has told the BBC

the crimes he committed could absolutely happen again.

Also in the programme: If you can't beat them, join forces.

Online taxi giant Uber is to merge with local Chinese rival Didi

And ahead of a raft of European manufacturing data and a big week

for UK interest rates, here's how markets are looking.

And we'll be getting the inside track on the business

It's an industry that's taken off across the globe and is soon

expected to reach the $1 trillion mark in global sales.

And as beach resorts and holiday hotspots say they're having

to install better wifi and faster connections to keep customers happy,

we want to know is wifi now a basic necessity rather

Let us know using the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Kweku Adoboli, the former UBS trader convicted of fraud,

has told the BBC that bank culture of profit no matter

He's been speaking to the BBC in an exclusive first

The 36-year-old's unauthorised trading lost the Swiss bank

$2.2 billion and in 2012 he was sentenced to seven years

Mr Adoboli became a junior trader at just 25 and by the age of 27

he was part of a team responsible for $50 billion in assets.

He claimed in court he had lost control of his trades

but the prosecution said his actions amounted to fraud, pure and simple.

His actions cost fellow traders their jobs,

prompted the resignation of the Chief Executive and wiped

$4.5billion from the share price of UBS.

It was the largest trading loss in British banking history

and the prosecution said that he was only a gamble or two

away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank.

Mr Adoboli is a Ghanaian national and because he was sentenced

to more than four years in prison he is automatically

Last month, he lost his appeal against being deported from the UK

Speaking to our economics editor in his first ever TV interview,

he was asked if he should apologise for what happened.

I have apologised and I will continue apologising. I am

devastated, not for myself, but for my institution and the people I

worked with. The very first thing I did when I was first arrested was to

say I was sorry beyond words. I said it through my lawyers but that is

what I said. During my trial I said I was sorry repeatedly. These are

not just devices. It is how I feel. I failed. I made mistakes. Do you

think that the culture that you found yourself in has changed now?

And it couldn't happen again? Unfortunately I have to say that the

conversations I have had with people in the industry over the last year,

through the conferences I have spoken at, the seminars I have been

involved in, everyone, the young traders, the senior executives,

everyone in the industry is still looking for a way to change culture

within the industry. We still have so much work to do to get the

finance industry in a position where it is trusted by society, that it is

contributing something consistently that helps society move forward in a

positive way. As behaviour changed in banking enough? No, absolutely

not. The young people I have spoken to, former colleagues I have spoken

to, they are still struggling with the same issues, then conflicts, the

same pressures to achieve no matter what. And we know where conflict

goes. Where conflict comes is where people fall into this grey zone. I

think it can absolutely happen again, especially as we go into what

could possibly be the next phase of the great financial crisis over the

next 12 to 18 to 24 months. Looking back now, do you think of yourself

as a criminal? I don't think I am a criminal. It is a label that I have.

I made a terrible mistake. A sequence of terrible choices. But

your intentions were always in the right place. I accept that I was

found guilty of a crime that had dishonesty central to it. You were

called a liar in the trial. I was called a liar and I accept that I

lied and I accept that I was dishonest in the way I was doing

what I was doing. How did the son of a senior figure in the United

Nations, who went to a well renowned Quaker school, end up being

photographed in handcuffs being taken to and from court and ending

up in prison? It was a shock. What was most difficult for me was

thinking about my friends and family and how they were perceiving it.

Throughout the entire process, you stop thinking about yourself. Maybe

that is just the way I am built. But my concern was never about me. It

was never about the pain or the embarrassment or the things that

were being said about me. It was the impact that those things had my

friends and family. That was the thing was most difficult. We will be

getting more on those story and what some of those comments will mean for

the wider banking industry because we will be speaking to our economics

editor Kamal Ahmed onset later. Stay tuned for that. Now we turn our

attention to Asia. That appears to be Uber's strategy

when it comes to China. The largest app Didi Chuxing

is poised to merge with its rival Uber China as part of

a $35 billion deal. Our Asia business correspondent

Karishma Vaswani is Great to see you. Didi Chuxing, I

just like saying it! Was based on the cards? Uber had some trouble in

China. Yes, it has had a fair amount of trouble. Reports out this morning

say it will merge its operation with local writhing Didi Chuxing.

According to these reports, the deal will give Uber a 20% stake in the

combined firm. That deal could be worth up to $35 billion. They have

both spent bucketloads of cash on incentives for drivers and subsidies

for users, as well as promotions, and they have cut prices in a bid to

win market share in China. But Uber has had a lot of trouble. It is

losing close to $1 billion a year in a war that one industry described to

me as a major blood-letting in distant... Incident. It is no

surprise that Uber was calling it quits. Didi Chuxing, they controlled

most of the market in China. Uber was being compromised by the amount

of money being spent on the China dream. The details of the deal have

not been released yet, so watch this space. Thank you.

In other news: The chairman of advertising agency

Saatchi And Saatchi has been suspended for saying he didn't view

the lack of women in leadership roles as a problem in the industry.

The head of Saatchi's parent company, Publicis,

said it wouldn't tolerate anyone who didn't value inclusion.

The group said its board is yet to decide whether to take further

Australian newspaper group Fairfax Media has said it'll post

write-downs worth nearly $760 million for the

In recent years, the global publishing industry has suffered

as a result of falling advertising revenue.

Since 2009, the company has marked down its assets

by around $4.2 billion, that's more than double

There have been further demonstrations in Brazil calling

for the permanent removal of suspended president

The protests took place in 11 states, including Rio and Sao Paolo,

and thousands of people are thought to have taken part.

The latest protests come at a particularly sensitive time

for Brazil, with the Rio Olympics only five days away.

The Nikkei in Japan erasing earlier losses and closed up slightly

as that recent surge in the yen starts to slow.

The latest Japanese manufacturing PMIs showed more contraction

In China, they showed little sign of improvement either.

In Europe we'll get the latest manufacturing PMI data for July,

and keep a close eye on the UK number after the disappointing

What did the Brexit uncertainty mean for the numbers?

There's also the reading for Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

But most of the attention this week will be on the Bank of England.

Its rate meeting and quarterly inflation report is due on Thursday.

Michelle has the details in New York.

The pace of corporate earnings report is slowing. Two names to

watch out for this week are Tesla and LinkedIn, which both turn in

their accounts. It will be a busy week for Wall Street with an action

packed economic calendar. The big one is this Friday's monthly US jobs

report. After disappointing growth figures last week, any signs of

weakness in the labour market will be expectations of a rate rise in

the near future. Payrolls for July are forecast to rise by 180,000,

down from 287,000 the previous month. The week kicks off with data

on the manufacturing sector. The institute for supply management

issues its index later this Monday. US factory activity in July is

projected to continue to expand, suggesting that manufacturers are

pulling out of a prolonged slump. Joining us now is James Bevan,

chief investment officer at CCLA Great to have you in the studio.

Shall we start with the disappointing news from the world's

biggest economy on Friday. GDP growth numbers are less than half of

what they were a year ago at an annualised rate. The Asian markets

are hitting a one year high because in Asia they are saying, well, the

US will not raise interest rates now. The US has had a mixed bag of

economic data and that is what you would expect in a world where we are

experiencing quite flat growth trends and pretty much no

information. This is the sort of environment where central banks will

have a wait attitude for any further tightening. OK, this story has just

dropped. GlaxoSmithKline and Alphabet, which was part of Google,

certainly the new name for it, coming up with a new medical

division. This will be bioelectronics. What more do we

know? We know a lot. We know they are going to invest 470 million over

five years. Several companies are significantly committed to this

area. GlaxoSmithKline ran an article in Nature a few years ago to say

that the use of electronics in the treatment of medical conditions was

important. They believe they can steal a march on their competitors

and it will be a really exciting issue if you suffer from any of

these challenges including type two diabetes. Big money in that sector

as well, right? And vast changes for people's lifestyles. Really

important, absolutely. Great to see you. Thank you.

Still to come: We'll be speaking to a man whose business

it is to help us snack our way through the day

without harming our waistlines too much.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

That is particularly relevant for us because we went to the gym

separately at the weekend and now we can't walk! But nonetheless!

Shares in Britain's biggest banks are up this morning as investors

breathe a sigh of relief after the results of this year's

The results for 51 lenders were published on Friday evening

But whilst most were good, Investors are fretting

about Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi as well as the German giant Deutsche

So what are the stress tests looking for?

Lorenzo Codogno is former chief economist to the Italian

Treasury, he explained to us a little earlier.

Like a crash test you make very extreme assumptions on the economic

environment and you look at what happens to the balance sheet of the

banks and whether there is any capital left at the end. This is in

a nutshell. So if they have any money left after this scenario, this

crisis? OK. Some British banks did not do very well, in particular RBS.

But it does seem to be focused on your country's banks, Italian banks.

How much of a mess are they in? Before the tests there were big

concerns about the Italian banking sector and some concerns about the

Italian banking sector, and also concerns about systemic risk in the

system. The good news after the test, despite these concerns, the

overall picture that emerges from the tests is reassuring.

Thousands of pots of yoghurt have been removed from supermarket

shelves because of concerns they may contain pieces of rubber.

The Yeo Valley Company, which supplies Asda,

The Co-op, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose, says

the yoghurts including some supermarket own brands

Two London branches of burger chain Byron have been forced to close over

the weekend after protesters released hundreds of live insects

It's thought to be part of a growing backlash against the chain

for its involvement in an immigration crackdown

Full details are on Business Live page.

Our top story: In his first broadcast interview,

Kweku Adoboli has told the BBC that the culture of profit no

matter what in banking has not changed and apologises after being

found guilty of being Britain's biggest rogue trader.

The London trader who lost the Swiss bank UBS ?1.5 billion has apologised

for what he did and said that banking has not done enough

A quick look at how markets are faring.

Manufacturing data is due in about 45 minutes from now. European

markets ticking up a little higher. A pound buying you a dollar 32.

Now, how health conscious are you when it comes to what you eat?

There's been a big boom in the healthy eating industry.

But what about those mid-afternoon cravings,

It's all too easy to reach for a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar.

But, and good news for our waistlines, there are a growing

number of businesses offering an alternative.

The healthy foods market will push through the $1 trillion mark

for the first time in 2017 as consumers become more interested

for the first time in 2017 as consumers become more interested

Last year, nearly 40% of all new snacks launched

around the world were some form of healthy eating.

In the US, this was even higher at 70% and it's

One of the companies trying to satisfy demand

It was founded in 2008 and has sold more than 12 million snacks.

Anthony Fletcher is the Chief Executive of Graze

I was reaching under the table for some of the Graze products. Welcome

to the programme. One trillion, that's an astonishing market when

you think about it. When it hits one trillion. A hugely competitive

market. How have you managed to crack it? Well, Graze has taken an

unusual approach to the market. It started off as an online brand, but

it made the decision to go from clicks to bricks and it had a lot of

success. Talking of that technology. With an internet firm, you can

gather loads of information about your customers based on habits and

then you can start offering them similar stuff and getting them to

buy more. How does that work? Well, we have an agile factory which let's

us launch a new product in 48 hours. Every hour we get 15,000 ratings

back from our grazers. We can bring the best products to market. It is

the stuff that doesn't sell that you stop selling and the stuff that

you're selling, you do more of? That's part of innovation. Some

things you make once and we sent them out to our grazers and if they

don't like it, we never make it again. Does it vary what people like

or don't like or choose from your online customers. This is the online

stuff. If you order online, you get a box with a selection of snacks.

This is what you sell in the shops. Does it vary? It does vary depending

on the part of the country and the person who is eating. Our best

seller is veggie protein power. Natural protein coming from nuts and

beans. That's selling like hot cake at the moment. Let's talk about the

health fad if we can call it that. It stood the test of time. People,

you know, eating more healthily now and it is not just a fad. It has

changed the way retail look at this. It is less carbs. You have got to

adapt to the changing demands? You try lots of different things and you

bring out your best seller. In Boots, we are outselling every

confectionery brand apart from one. If I went back to 2008 when this

company was started I never would have dreamed we could compete with

the chocolate and the Chrisps. You look like a fairly young bloke! I'm

always curious, younger than you! How do you get into the snack? Were

you a snacker yourself? I have always worked in the food industry

and I really love it. But I don't think it is shaping up and what I

was interested in is how can technology help it? How can it make

it more responsive to consumers. This is what I'm really passionate

about. Aaron is going to have this one. I'm liking that. Protein after

your gym session. It is not a gym session. I did British military

fitness in Hyde Park yesterday and it is killing me. It is absolutely

killing me! We asked you if wi-fi was a luxury

or a necessity. A lot of you getting in touch. Marcus says, "It is a

basic need. He wants to be able to watch Business Live online." Matthew

says, "A basic need. Anni says a must for most people. I would choose

to stay in a hotel elsewhere if they didn't have free wi-fi. Steve says,

"Rip off data rates when you are roaming abroad. You need free wi-fi

and Gareth says, battery life comes only secondary to battery life

because you need wi-fi wherever you go.

Here is a reminder how to get in touch with us. The Business Live

page is where you can stay ahead with the day's breaking news. . We

have insight and analysis from the BBC's team of editors from around

the world. We want to hear from you too. Get involved on the BBC

Business Live web page: On Twitter we are at BBC business.

You can find us on Facebook. Business Live on TV and online

whenever you need to know! A rogue trader who was jailed

for Britain's biggest banking fraud has said the industry still hasn't

done enough to regain Kweku Adoboli who lost ?1.5 billion

while working for the Swiss bank, UBS said pressure to make profits

meant criminal behaviour Joining us is Kamal Ahmed,

the BBC's Economics Editor. You did the interview with Kweku

Adoboli. We heard that interview earlier. What did you make of his

apology? I think it was genuine. I spent a lot of time with him. We

went up to Edinburgh and spent the best part of a day really with him

talking to him and obviously we have been in touch with him for a long

period before then. I think he has been on a massive journey. It is

sometimes easy to forget this is a person in his mid-20s was dealing

with a $50 billion trading book. He says he was under pressure to create

profits. That led to his behaviour, that led to the criminal trial and

his conviction. He certainly talks about the notion of redemption of

putting back. He gives this apology. He says it could happen again. He is

giving his time to banking compliance conferences and such

like. I think there is some genuine remorse there and apology. What was

interesting though was that he does see this or his behaviour as

something what he describes as we did this and we did that. Whether he

has really taken personal responsibility for what happened is

still open it debate. I asked him does he see himself as a criminal?

He answered no. That's interesting what you said about, he was saying

we. Ben and I were speaking and saying about the age, you think 27

is young to be handling tens of billions of dollars, but we will

talk about the culture in the City where you find of like, was he

winging it thinking I can wing this, but the boys culture or the City

culture, you're not going to be the one to go, "I made a mistake." And

you keep going until you no longer can wing it. He was rather good at

his job when the markets were in a benign state before 2011. I don't

know if people remember, we went through 2010 and people thought the

financial crisis was behind us and the markets were looking stronger.

Kweku Adoboli did well through that period and he thought to himself,

"I'm good at this. I can take increasing amounts of risk. I'm not

going to reveal that risk to UBS", but America was downgraded and

credit rating downgraded, the first rumbles of the euro Chris sis. He

hasn't got the hedges in place and that's when he a problem.

The interview is on the website. If you want to watch that again, it is

on website. That's it from us today. We will see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.