09/08/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Victoria Fritz

"Complicated and too expensive" - that's the verdict on having

This morning the UK's competition watchdog has set out its proposals

Live from London, that's our top story on Tuesday 9th August.

The UK's competition authority says it is "paving the way for an open

banking revolution" but are the big names on the high street listening?

We'll get an expert view on this latest package of measures.

Also in the programme - he's called the "rockstar",

but Raghuram Rajan has just overseen his last policy

meeting as head of the Indian central bank -

who will fill his shoes, and was it the right call to keep interest

And traders continue to enjoy the ride in Europe with all the main

markets headed higher again - we'll talk you through

And does booking directly with a hotel save you money?

We'll be talking to one firm which says in most cases it does.

He's the most decorated athlete in the history of the Olympic Games.

But Michael Phelps' personal life hasn't always been as golden

as his record in the pool - major sponsors dropping deals

He's looking to secure his corporate comeback.

Today we want to know your comeback stories - just use

They are calling it a revolution - but some argue in the UK

And that is what a UK regulator is trying to tackle and has unveiled

a package of new measures to boost competition in retail banking.

The Competition and Markets Authority is saying technology

is key in making significant change and provides an alternative

to the traditional high street banks.

And across the globe new FinTech start-ups are attracting huge

Last year more than $22-billion was invested globally

in financial technology - that's an increase of 75%.

Tthe vast majority of this was targeted at banking

Emerging markets - particularly in Asia -

are leading the way and are fast adopters of new banking

Here you can see monthly mobile payments in India

have almost quadrupled over the past two years.

But is banking really reaching its 'Uber moment' in other

It's a phrase dubbed by former Barclays chief

executive Antony Jenkins - who predicted technology

will unleash huge changes on the industry, including job

losses and the closure of a large number of high

With us on the programme is John Lyons, the retail

and commercial banking leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

I wonder whether you think the actions outlined in the report will

be enough to make banks deliver a better service for customers? It is

certainly good for consumers, the thought of your bank sending you a

text message to say you are about to go overdrawn and giving you a

greater period to deal with that, capped unauthorised monthly fees,

that is great. The question is whether it will drive more

competition or whether it is just a better deal for consumers, because

the report was aimed at growing competition in the banking market.

The solution, as Sally outlined, seems to rely on consumer technology

to put the balance of power literally in the hands of the

consumer, through things like smartphones and this new app they

have been talking about. Where does this leave people who are not as

tech savvy? The most exciting thing about this, what is called the API,

the system, it is opening up your banking records so you could have

one application irrespective of where you bank and make payments

from any of your bank accounts, no-one logging onto your mortgage,

then your current account, then you're other accounts, so that is

exciting. Take that a stage further, people providing new services to

look at the way you deal with your bank account, your transaction

history, and then scour the market to say which other products or

services might deliver that better or cheaper, then you start to drive

the competition. For me, exciting as it is opening up the API, but, to

your point, not everyone likes technology, so what about those

people who don't want to do online banking? The CMA dealt with that in

a way that they said they would create prompts for people, it may be

a statement stuff, it might be better for people who don't do

online banking, to drop you a note every now and then to say what you

are being charged and what is the competition, prompting you to look

at whether you could get a better deal elsewhere. How long do you

think it will take for that cultural shift to take place in this country?

In Africa, India, banking on a smart device is a lifeline, it is normal,

but we are a long way from that? We are a long way from that, we have

had the crisis from 2008 and banks in the Western world have been

struggling to get over that, let alone invest in new technologies.

Some other countries have jumped ahead, and when you look at where

the most successful challenger banks have been, the UK has a number of

them coming through but where they have gained traction really is

places like Poland and South Africa, where they are starting to compete

with the big boys. We have a large number of start-up banks in the UK

the important thing, they have got the important thing, they have got

new business models and lower costs, but they need to drive customer

volumes to make the business model work. Thank you for coming in and

taking us through those report findings. A lot more on that online

as ever. E-commerce giant Alibaba says it

wants to help companies keen According to a report by Bloomberg,

the Chinese firm aims to help foreign clients comply with local

regulations and sell their products. Alibaba says it aims to sign up 50

partners over the next 12 months. Facebook has confirmed that it's

in the early stages of testing a wifi service with various

Indian internet companies. The service allows users to purchase

data from local providers A pilot version with a state-run

telecoms company has already been Donald Trump says he plans to "jump

start" the US economy by suspending new regulations

and cutting corporate taxes. During a speech in Detroit,

the billionaire businessman said he planned to end the "death" tax

levied on assets passed Let's look at some of the business

pages online, I want to point you to this story on our website about

China warning over the delay over Hinkley Point in Somerset. This is

the nuclear project that has been somewhat stymied. This is the

ambassador to the UK for China, writing in the Financial Times,

saying that the delay to approving the plant has brought the two

countries to a crucial historical juncture. He hinted that mutual

trust could be in jeopardy if the UK Government decided not to approve

the deal. Quite interesting because Theresa

May, the newly appointed Prime Minister, has put that decision on

review, which is why it has no longer got the green light. We will

give you -- keep you up to date with any development on that.

Let's head to India, where the country's central bank has

decided to keep interest rates on hold.

This is the the last policy decision to be made my the outgoing

Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan.

It's not often that policymakers are described as rock stars -

Although I have heard of Mark Carney described as George Clooney said

things are changing! Mr Rajan will be a very

difficult act to follow. Sameer Hashmi joins us from outside

the Indian central bank. He is a popular figure, what happens

next? He is very popular but at the same

time very controversial. You described him as a rock star, never

a dull moment when he was in office here at India's Central Bank. He

still has 28 days left, the government is supposed to announce

the new man to take his place in the next few days, many names doing the

rounds... INAUDIBLE.

I do apologise, I think we have just lost Samir there but plenty more

available when it comes to India and the future of that economy, a huge

growth economy, and no change in the interest rate decision in that

country at the moment. Pesky gremlins! I have been speaking

to sum it all morning and have had three successful conversations with

him so far today. In India, to reiterate, the central bank has

decided to keep interest rates on hold today. Markets across the world

very much focused on central bank action, that is what is fuelling the

rally in Europe. We cannot show you the numbers right now but most of

the main market are headed higher again today. We will talk in more

detail about that in a moment but let's look at what is happening

stateside. Mickey Mouse and his colleagues will

be front and centre on Wall Street on Tuesday when Walt Disney reports

its earnings. Disney has had a few box office wins in the last quarter

the Jungle book. A drag on Disney the Jungle book. A drag on Disney

will be the declining subscribers for its sports network, ESPN.

Just how productive have American workers

We will find out a little later when the US Labor Department

releases data on the hourly output per worker.

And finally, Solar City will also be reporting earnings on Tuesday.

This is the company that electric car company Tesla has recently

Tesla shareholders still have to vote on the deal

Joining us is Simon Derrick, chief market strategist

Welcome to the programme. I have brought up the market state on the

tablet, we are seeing a real rally on equities across the world. The

FTSE higher today, led by the likes of legal and General, for example.

What is going on, why are equities racing higher? The FTSE was at 14

month highs yesterday. The monetary and see has overwhelmed everything

else. A lot of the big risk events we were worried about this year, the

EU referendum has come and gone, Chinese currency devaluation, people

are no longer worried about that. Oil prices, people no longer

concerned about that. Central banks have overwhelmed all that with

easier Monetary Policy Committee will need to put that money to work

and low and behold we are here in a quiet, calm August and markets are

going up. There is relatively little for them to worry about until we get

maybe to the presidential election. Also we are all shopping, sitting in

a pub and drinking in the UK right now, the latest British Retail

Consortium numbers out of date. You say that as though it is a bad

thing! Is it because the sun is shining? There was that great

concern in the early aftermath of the referendum that people thought

we would get bad sets of numbers. The first real take on what happened

in July, pretty much on average from what we have seen in previous parts

of the year, and you are right it was food and in and fashion,

although there was a concern that a lot of it was heavily discounted.

Not big ticket items? No, Barclaycard's numbers suggested a

similar thing, we are out in restaurants and pubs. I would like

to think I have contributed to that somehow! You will next week in the

Lake District! Absolutely! Does booking directly

with a hotel save you money? We'll be talking to one firm

which says in most cases it does. You're with Business

Live from BBC News. Let's have a look at some

stories from around the UK. Two of Britain's biggest insurers

have announced double-digit Operating profits rose 10%

at Legal General and 18% at Standard Life, proving

to investors that they've so far managed to navigate the unchartered

waters after the Brexit vote. Theo Leggett joins us

in our Business Newsroom. Theo what's going right

for these companies? Pensions are big business for both

of these countries. Legal General, let's have a look, the share price.

It absolutely tanked in the wake of the Brexit vote but has been bumping

up since then and part of the reason is that areas of business have been

doing well despite the market's turmoil. According to Legal

General today, their pension annuities business saw sales of ?3.8

billion over the last year, nearly triple the previous year. The

markets have not taken that so well, the share price dipped this morning,

which might be partly because a lot of the extra business is taking

on pensions business from final salary company schemes, basically

taking in some money but taking on some risk. In other areas, Legal

General and Standard Life have done well because people are rushing to

safety, putting their money into investment products which has

boosted the number of assets under administration that both of these

companies have got. What is the longer term outlook for

the insurers? Not too bad, Standard Life has made

a big thing about expanding its geographical coverage, it is excited

about India and China for example. These companies operate in the long

term, you might have short-term blips caused by things like the EU

referendum result, a lot of short-term market turmoil, but both

of these companies are focused around long-term investments and

you. -- thank you.

We have had some news from Morrisons and Ocado, this is the online

grocery firm, announcing changes to the long standing tie-up, they say

that Morrisons .com will be ruled out across one of the UK to pick

produce from its own stories through taking a major stake in their new

delivery Centre in South London, it'll be interesting to see what is

going on with the sharers a result. -- shares as a result.

That's the verdict on having a bank account in Britain.

This morning the UK's competition watchdog has set out its proposals

Plenty more available on the live web page.

A quick look at how the markets are faring.

They are higher, the main markets. Following the lead from Japan, the

story in Asia as well. We will keep a close eye on those for you.

Trying to find the cheapest hotel deal can be hard work.

One firm called Triptease says the average person visits 38

Triptease works with hotels to compete with online booking

services like Booking.com and Hotels.com, which they say can

charge hoteliers a hefty commission on sales.

They're already working with over 8,000 hotels across the world,

It was set up here in the UK and co-founded by Charlie Osmond.

Key to its success is a price check widget which shows in real time

the prices of other online travel agencies, compared

The firm claims they can increase the number of direct

Charlie Osmond is with us - co-founder and CEO of Triptease.

Good morning. Can you explain in basic terms what exactly it is that

you offer hotels? This is a business to business company? Were helping

hotels with the biggest challenge, increasing more bookings directly on

their own website. The key issue for hotels at the moment is people

believe that prices are cheaper elsewhere through the online

intermediaries and when actually hotels often have the best rate. We

provide a price comparison that sits on the website and people on the

website can be shown that this price is equal to the market or better. I

understand the challenges hotels face because when you go online to

book a flight, you immediately by giving the hotel option and the car

option, everything is ready, it is very convenient. And it looks quite

cheap, you would not necessarily think about checking the Hotel

website? It turns out that two thirds of bookers will go to the

hotel website because they want more photos and information that they

will often come to the website and then leave because of this price

misunderstanding and what has been fascinating is that hotels around

the world has stood up for themselves and said, it is time for

us to be able to charge people cheaper prices directly and to get

better services. Whether that is the Hilton or Marriot or Continental

hotels, they are offering real incentives for direct burgers and we

think this will change consumer behaviour. Does begin directly

always save money? Not always, we have just done ?200 million cheques

over the last few months and the hotel is often cheaper, with online

brokers around 20% at the time. It is good to shop around and that is

something we're trying to do, increase transparency. You offer

this service of driving traffic towards their website but you also

offer a lot of analysis that you have gathered with this research?

Yes, when we started, we firstly try to help one hotel at the time but we

have got scale, over 10,000 Hotel properties and that allows us to

analyse the way people search and what they are looking for and use

that for best practice to help hotels individually. Why decide to

do this? You set of this company some years ago, why did you decide

to do this? This is my third start-up, I always promised I would

never do that again! I was going through what I always find is a very

painful annual experience of booking the family holiday and I got so

frustrated, the amount of time that I was wasting planning a trip and I

felt there has to be a better way, improvements that can be made to the

online process so we launched into this. Why call this Triptease? This

is likely to put women in the hotel industry off? Len Webber say that we

find the opposite. It comes down to the fact that every year, hundreds

of thousands of companies are launched and we want to be in the

top zero. 1% and you must stand out, if you are bland people will forget

you. If it means pushing risks, but fundamentally, if you're not

prepared to do that, you will end up being a company we do not talk

about. The first two did not work? What is your top tip for somebody

trying to start something? My first two start-ups did very well but with

Triptease we two different things did not work out. A lot of people

are working at their desks and it might be worried about what you say!

What we learned with Triptease is even though we knew we wanted to go

to the market and there was an opportunity, we at a very lean

start-up approach, constantly iterating, trying one thing that did

not work, trying another, trying the third, that did work. You have to

constantly keep trying things and testing. And the nice thing is

today, you can inexpensively try something and see if it works and

then move on. Great, Charlie, thank you very much.

In a moment we'll take a look through the Business Pages but first

here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us.

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Facebook. Business Live, on TV and online, whenever you need to know.

Simon is back. This story is in York times, about Donald Trump, he

stocking tax and very much his economics and we have been

discussing, favouring pinstripes over blue-collar workers? For a

candidate supposedly in favour of the working class, he clearly has a

soft spot for the 1%? Trying to win back the Republican core voters,

this is caught Republican economics but in terms of the message, it is

quite smart because here he reveals, sending a message to Republican

voters and wealthy voters, but by being in Detroit he has sent a clear

message to blue-collar workers and strong message about International

Trade as well. Talking about trade agreements, going after people like

Japan and China, but he has called currency manipulators in the past

but there is something for everybody. Maybe that is the wise

thing about what he is doing. Let us talk about Michael Phelps, the

American swimmer who got his 19th medal at the American Olympics. This

article in the Wall Street Journal talks about how he is reinventing

himself? They say there is no second chances and I were struggling to

think of other American athletes that have come back after some of

the setbacks that he has had. I think maybe Tiger Woods is the

closest I can think of. He is trying to get fresh sponsorship and at the

moment he is the face of Amica, and beef jerky and hot towels! That go

hot tubs. It is interesting. We had this conversation about Maria

Sharapova, she was given a two-year ban for being involved in

international tennis so she is in that in between world and there is a

way back, it would seem, if he is successful? This is his last

Olympics, will he come back? If you are a sponsor, looking for the next

eight years, able find a better candidate than Michael Phelps. Given

his past history and his future in terms of sport. One last article,

this made us giggle! The New York Times, America is completely

flummoxed by Chip and pin, they don't like the noise, the beeping,

they say it is like the sign of failure? First world problems! --

sound of. Get over yourself! I love it, it is fantastic. I love being

able to use contactless, I use it on transport, in shops, restaurants. It

is so fast! You would think the biggest economy in the world would

love this? Perhaps it is the fact that if you're in the midwest,

perhaps there is less security concerns, perhaps some shops do not

invest in it. But it is fantastic! I love it! Thank you so much and enjoy

your holiday!