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HSBC is planning a new investment advice service aimed at customers who do not have buckets of money, the Financial Times reports, external. 

The move comes a matter of weeks after Royal Bank of Scotland said it was making 220 financial advisers redundant and that it would focus solely on customers with more than £200,000.

HSBC is introducing “simplified” face-to-face investment advice this week, initially to customers with at least £50,000 to invest. It plans to test the service for customers with £15,000 or more in savings later this year. 

The move will make the bank the first in the UK to offer branch-based investment advice to people with relatively small amounts to invest.

Image source, Go To Bermuda

The Bermuda Business Development Agency has seized on the Panama papers leak as a PR opportunity, sending out a press release explaining why “Bermuda is different”.

We caught up with chief executive of the independent agency that helps firms set up in the country, to find out more.

Chief executive Ross Webber tells the BBC that while the term "offshore" was often linked to “nefarious or dodgy behaviour” that was not the case for Bermuda - a British overseas territory lest we forget.

“It’s very important to point out Bermuda is different to many offshore centres. The offshore market here is mainly built up around insurance clients,” he says.

5 live presenter Adam Parsons tweets:

Mackay Taggart, news director of Global News in Toronto, tweets:

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Chinese steel prices will always affect the rest of the world, Peter Brennan, metals editor at the commodity news and price reporting agency Platts, tells Today. "There is global overcapacity, there is overcapacity in China, but 50% of the world’s demand for steel is also in China," he says. 

But Mr Brenan adds there is overcapacity in Europe too: "If we’re going to get into a rebalancing situation, capacity has to be taken off line and Tata UK’s steel division seems to be one of the units that will suffer."

Ironically steel prices have started to rise because there have been fewer exports, but Tata has still decided to sell the UK business, he notes.

The BBC's Simon Atkinson in Mumbai tweets:

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A founding partner of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca says it was infiltrated by hackers abroad. Ramon Fonseca said the leak was not an inside job, but he did not specify which country the cyber-attack came from. 

A criminal complaint about the breach had been lodged with Panama's legal authorities, he said. 

Numerous governments have opened investigations into possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful after the leak of more than 11 million documents.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Peter Brennan, metals editor at the commodity news and price reporting agency Platts, tells Today just as important to the UK steel crisis was the amount of European steel imported into the UK in the past year. 

He says the “narrative” around Chinese dumping of steel has been very much overplayed: “We saw 24 tonnes of Chinese hot rod coil enter the UK in January, down 99% year-on-year.”

The strength of sterling relative to other currencies was just as much of a problem for the UK steel industry as any other factor, Mr Brennan adds.

BBC sports editor Dan Roan tweets:

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Visit Guernsey

Guernsey treasury minister, Gavin St. Pier, has been on Wake Up To Money. As a Crown dependency, he says Guernsey has had a long constitutional relationship with the Crown compared with overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands that have been acquired by the UK and has a long history of self-rule.

Mr St. Pier insists that Guernsey is not a tax haven, but rather a "low tax jurisdiction" that has a lean and efficient government and therefore doesn’t need a complex tax code like the UK. “We are a safe haven – we are not a secrecy jurisdiction,” he says. “Our record is exemplary”. 

Guernsey plays a key role in international capital markets for those who have legitimate business and channels considerable investment into both the UK and the EU, Mr St. Pier adds.

Chris Johnston
Business reporter

Welcome to another day of reaction to the Panama papers, which yesterday claimed their first scalp as Iceland's prime minister stepped down following revelations about his links to an offshore company. What will Wednesday have in store? Stay with us to find out.