For those poor souls who are still chained to their desks in August, it might not seem like there's much going on.
But somehow the news keeps on coming. Let's experience it again together. It's time for the week in news.
1) Ace of base
In perhaps the least surprising bit of news to come out of the City this week, the Bank of England has increased the base rate of interest to its highest level since the financial crisis - the unbelievably high level of...0.75 per cent.
All nine members of the monetary policy committee voted to raise the rate on the back of positive economic data.
In his press conference accompanying the bank’s quarterly inflation report, Mark Carney, the Bank's governor, repeated his long stated view that any rises in UK interest rates from here on are likely to be "gradual" and that rates will peak at a lower level this time than they have in the past.
Mr Carney has gone on to say that the impact of a no deal Brexit on the UK economy would be similar to a banking crisis, with a deep recession, and a sharp drop in house prices.
In the meantime several lenders, including HSBC and Santander, have started to reveal when they will pass the Bank of England's base rate rise on to variable rate mortgage borrowers.
2) Jailhouse rock
The fuzz decided Freddy David's advice was definitely unsuitable this week when he found himself in the clink.
David, of Borehamwood, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to running a Ponzi scheme, in which 55 victims were defrauded out of more than £14.5m.
An investigation by the City of London Police's Fraud Squad found that between 2005 and 2017, 49-year-old David had been running a Ponzi scheme through wealth management company HBFS Financial Services Limited (HBFS), of which he was managing director.
David would convince victims, some of whom he knew personally as friends, that their funds were being held in a high interest bank account offering between 4 and 8 per cent interest annually.
But the investigation was found large sums of money were being transferred into David's personal bank accounts for his own use as well as being used to pay other investors their "monthly interest".
3) The good, the bad and the ugly
Transfers can be a pain, but it turns out not all pains were created equal.
Moving a pension from one provider to the other can take as long as 52 days or be as fast as 13 days, with times varying widely between providers, pension consolidator PensionBee found this week.
In its analysis of the pension switching market - which involves moving defined contribution (DC) pots between providers - the firm found XPS Pensions Group (formerly Xafinity) was the provider with the worst switching time, taking an average of 52 days to release the funds.
The fintech provider analysed a sample of 7,292 transfers to its platform to find the worst performers – with Now: Pensions in second place taking 45 days on average, followed by Mercer, with 44 days.
In its defence, XPS Pensions questioned the validity of the data, saying PensionBee had only analysed six individual pension switches, "each with its own characteristics".
4) TailorMade failure
This week a judge has upheld the Financial Conduct Authority's decision to ban the chief executive of TailorMade Independent, which distributed Harlequin products.
Alistair Burns has been banned from performing any significant-influence or senior management function, on the basis of a "fundamental lack of competence and capability".
The Upper Tribunal also told the FCA to impose a reduced fine on Mr Burns of £60,000, compared with the £233,600 which the regulator had originally levied.
Between January 2010 and January 2013, TailorMade provided advice to 1,661 customers who were considering transferring or switching their pension funds into self-invested personal pensions (Sipp).
The judge ruled the advice was "wholly unsuitable" and Mr Burns was wrong to claim the products came with guarantees because these were "no more than a promise". He also found Mr Burns had a significant financial interest in the outcome of the unsuitable advice his firm was giving.
5) Platform delays
Finally, it wouldn't be a week in the financial advice world in 2018 without a reference to Aegon and Aviva.
This week it emerged advisers were reluctant to transfer clients from Aegon and Aviva because of the length of time and quantity of paperwork required, despite the woes experienced by users on those platforms.
The regulator described the task of switching platforms as "burdensome" and can take up to 15 hours of a firm's time, saying certain platform practices - such as offering volume discounts and white labelling - could act as disincentives to switch.
Minesh Patel, an adviser at EA Financial Solutions in London, said he wouldn't place any new business with the Aviva platform but he has not transferred any clients away from the platform because the regulatory challenges were "not straightforward".
Mr Patel said Aviva had once been the "fastest growing" platform in terms of receiving new business from his firm.
He said the level of reporting to the regulator which must be done when switching clients was a significant drain on an adviser's time and he said it was unclear whether he could then charge the clients for this.
damian.fantato@ft.com
