Financial safety

Ban £50 notes to tackle crime, ex-bank chief says

Central banks should stop issuing £50, $100 and €500 notes to tackle crime, according to a former bank boss.

The high-denomination notes are favoured by terrorists, drug lords and tax evaders, argues Peter Sands, former chief executive of Standard Chartered bank, in a new report.

Illegal money flows exceed $2 trillion (£1.4 trillion) a year, Mr Sands said.

Rather than focus on the criminals, his report argued G20 countries should now target the cash itself.

Mr Sands, who produced the report for the Harvard Kennedy School, urged the world's 20 largest economies to take up the matter before their next summit in China in September.