THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ BANK PAYOUTS TheUK’s four largest banks – Barclays, RBS,

Lloyds and HSBC – have had to shell out £71bn in fines, legal fees and compensation since the financial crisis. Lloyds has coughed up the most, paying at least £24.3bn since 2008.

■ NORTHERN EXODUS The number of Londoners heading north to buy homes has tripled over the last eight years, claims estate agent Hamptons. In the first half of 2018 Londoners bought 30,280 homes outside the capital, 21pc of which were in the north of England or the Midlands.

■ INSOLVENCY MOVE Government ministers want to tighten insolvency laws to stop ‘reckless’ bosses dissolving their firms to avoid paying off staff or meeting pension commitments.

■ HOTEL BATTLE Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, the billionaire owners of the Ritz and the Telegraph, have won a bidding war for the five - star Beaumont

Hotel in London. The twins reportedly paid between £125m and £140m for the lease.

■ TROLL TACKLING Socialmedia company Pinterest is trying to oust trolls ahead of its public market float next year . The website will create a new public misinfor - mation policy, change its recommendation algorithm and expand its safety engineering team.

■ COLLEGE COLLAPSE One of the UK’s largest privately funded college networks, GSM London, is in talks with the Department for Education over securing an emergency funding line to save it from collapse.