Business
Alan Bates to get multi-million-pound payout over Post Office saga
Post Office campaigner Alan Bates has agreed a multi-million pound compensation figure from the Post Office, sources close to the deal have confirmed to the BBC.
The payout for Sir Alan comes more than 20 years after he started campaigning for justice for victims of the Horizon scandal which led a group of 555 sub-postmasters launching landmark legal action against the Post Office.
The exact sum paid to Sir Alan has not been made public and he has not responded to requests for comment.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after the faulty Horizon IT system indicated shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts.
Hundreds more poured their own savings into their branch to make up apparent shortfalls in order to avoid prosecution.
Marriages broke down, and some families believe the stress led to serious health conditions, addiction and even premature death.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade said: “We pay tribute to Sir Alan Bates for his long record of campaigning on behalf of victims.
“We can confirm that Sir Alan’s claim has reached the end of the scheme process and been settled.”
As of September 2025, a total of £1.23bn had been awarded to more than 9,100 sub-postmasters.
Sir Alan first received an offer of redress in January 2024, which he rejected, describing it as “cruel and derisory”.
He was made another offer in May 2024 which he said was around a third of what he had requested. In May of this year, he said that he’d received a third offer for less than 50% of his original claim.
Sir Alan was part of the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme, under which claimants can either receive £75,000 or seek their own settlement.
As part of plan to claim his own settlement, Mr Bates told the BBC his lawyers had included compensation owed for his 20 years of campaigning for justice for those sub-postmasters caught up in the scandal.
The Post Office/Horizon scandal reached new heights in the public consciousness last year after Sir Alan’s campaign for justice was portrayed in the ITV drama series Mr Bates vs the Post Office.
The government adopted all but one of the recommendations of a report published following an inquiry into the scandal.
The inquiry detailed the full human impact of the scandal for the first time: the report said that more than 13 people may have taken their own lives as a result of what happened to them.
Earlier this year, Sir Alan accused the government of putting forward a “take it or leave it” offer of compensation amounting to less than half of his claim.
Many victims have previously complained about being forced to accept low offers of compensation, without the benefit of legal help.
Last month, the government announced that all victims who are claiming compensation will now be entitled to free legal advice to help them with their offers.
There are four different compensation schemes, which are aimed at different groups of victims.
Individual eligibility for compensation depends on the particular circumstances of each case.
However, the schemes have been criticised for being too slow and complicated, with many of the worst-affected victims receiving far less than their original claims.
A former retail worker from Dundee backs a campaign asking shoppers to treat staff with respect.
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State Bank of India is well-positioned to support outbound financing due to its deep understanding of domestic corporates, CS Setty said.
State Bank of India (Representative)
State Bank of India’s Chairperson CS Setty on Tuesday said that the country’s largest lender is open to collaborating with foreign banks once the Reserve Bank makes it possible for local banks to do acquisition finance.
Weeks after the central bank announced its intent to allow Indian banks to fund companies for executing domestic acquisitions, Setty acknowledged that the “MNC (multinational companies) banks” are dominant in the space.
“Yes, I think some of the MNC banks are very well into this activity. We don’t mind collaborating with them,” Setty said as quoted by news agency PTI.
He said that SBI has always been doing outbound acquisition finance and has also gained considerable expertise in this aspect. He further said that SBI can also use its in-house investment banking unit SBI Capital Markets’ expertise for such deals.
State Bank of India is well-positioned to support outbound financing due to its deep understanding of domestic corporates, the SBI chairman added.
Setty added that the bank is still evaluating the Reserve Bank of India’s recent decision permitting acquisition financing and will finalise its stance shortly.
However, Setty noted that SBI has reservations about the RBI’s proposal to limit total M&A-related lending to 10% of a bank’s core capital. He said SBI, through the Indian Banks’ Association, plans to take up the matter with the regulator. He also clarified that any future merger and acquisition financing will be handled by the bank’s existing corporate finance division, and there are no plans to create a separate vertical for this purpose.
Meanwhile, Setty said that it will be launching a newer version of its mobile application Yono by the end of December this year, and added that it will be a completely revamped version of the app.
The bank is targeting to more than double the overall number of mobile banking users to 20 crore in an unspecified time, and the new version of the app will be able to handle the traffic that comes through it, Setty said
(With inputs from PTI)
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben…Read More
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben… Read More
November 04, 2025, 23:49 IST
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Business
‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is boosting more than just Netflix: Korean music, politics ride the craze
At South Korea’s largest amusement park, crowds of people wait for hours to be a part of the “KPop Demon Hunters” craze.
U.S. streaming giant Netflix, the distributor of the Sony Pictures Animation film, has collaborated with the Everland park outside of the capital city Seoul to create a themed zone featuring whack-a-mole, dance games and snacks from the movie.
It’s the latest iteration of the “KPop Demon Hunters” frenzy as the film takes Netflix by storm — and delivers a boost to the $10 billion K-pop music industry along with it.
Netflix said in August that “KPop Demon Hunters” had become the most popular Netflix film ever. In October, the streamer said “KPop Demon Hunters” had exceeded 325 million views.
The company has sought to capitalize on the popularity, offering two limited-window theatrical screenings for the film and striking consumer product deals with Hasbro and Mattel to get “KPop Demon Hunters” toys and merch on shelves.
Agnes Lee helped cast the movie and scout locations from Seoul as an associate producer for the film.
“K-pop and K-culture was such a huge and important part of this movie,” Lee told CNBC in Seoul. “We wanted to be authentic.”
Once popular mainly in Asia, K-pop music has become a global phenomenon. Artists like PSY, who shot to international stardom in 2012 with his viral music video “Gangnam Style,” put an international spotlight on K-pop. PSY’s hit song became YouTube’s most-watched video that year.
Since then, other K-pop acts have run up impressive numbers, too. BTS’ song “Dynamite” has exceeded 2 billion streams on Spotify. BLACKPINK’s 2023 tour became the highest-grossing by a female group on record, according to stats at the time from Touring Data.
Now, even “KPop Demon Hunters'” fictional bands are topping the global music charts.
Audrey Nuna, EJAE and Rei Ami attend the KPop Demon Hunters Special Screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on June 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California., U.S.
Charley Gallay | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
“I think people watched ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ in spite of that ‘K-pop’ in the title. And then, after watching it, they realized, ‘Oh, wow. I’m a K-pop fan,'” said Danny Chung, a K-pop producer and the voice of the film’s character, Baby Saja. “And now there’s a whole back catalogue of three decades of K-pop music that they have to dive into.”
And there’s plenty more to come: BLACKPINK is expected to release a new album. BTS is planning a comeback in 2026 after members of the band completed South Korea’s mandatory military service.
Enthusiastic investors have pumped up the stock prices of South Korea’s “Big Four” K-pop companies. Shares of HYBE, JYP Entertainment, SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment are all up double-digits year to date. YG is up more than 100%.
The impact of the film’s rise may not stop at music.
“The breakout success of ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ which could become one of Netflix’s most-watched content items, underscores K-content phenomenon in global market,” Mirae Asset Global Investments said in an Oct. 19 report. “We believe this cultural boom is a key catalyst driving increased international consumption of Korean cosmetics and food products such as noodles.”
On the political front, speculation is high that China, which blocked K-pop and other South Korean cultural exports under President Xi Jinping’s campaign to promote what Beijing considers proper socialist values, could soften its restrictions.
The countries’ presidents had a positive meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea.
“We continue to see K-pop as a direct beneficiary of thawing Korea-China relations,” Mirae said.
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