WH Smith is to claw back around £1.5 million in overpaid bonuses from former bosses following an accounting blunder at the retail firm’s US arm.

The travel retail specialist confirmed last week it is being investigated by the UK’s financial watchdog after it overstated profits for its North American business by as much as £50 million due to issues with its audit process.

Carl Cowling resigned as WH Smith’s chief executive last month after a report by Deloitte confirmed the accounting problems.

The company said on Wednesday in its annual report that annual bonus payments for Mr Cowling and former finance chief Robert Moorhead have been recalculated for 2023 and 2024.

It has also recalculated the payment of long-term share bonuses from a 2021 scheme for executives.

WH Smith said it overpaid Mr Cowling £516,000 in cash and 60,182 deferred shares worth £374,933 based on the latest closing price for the firm.

It overpaid Mr Moorhead by £372,000 in cash and £272,493 worth of shares.

It said it would now seek to “claw back” both of these payments from the former bosses.

WH Smith also confirmed that it did not pay annual or long-term bonuses to Mr Cowling for the past financial year.

As a result, his total pay deal tumbled to £724,000 for the year to August 2025, from £2.71 million for the same period a year earlier.

The retailer told investors last week that it had kickstarted a remediation plan, which aims to strengthen its governance and controls, ensure processes are aligned across the group, and enact cultural change involving training and monitoring.

Its board is currently searching for a permanent group chief executive.

WH Smith is now focused solely on its 1,300 shops in global travel locations, including at airports and train stations, after selling its high street chain of about 480 shops to Hobbycraft owner Modella Capital in June.

As part of the deal, the WH Smith name is disappearing from British high streets and being replaced by brand TGJones.

The slimmed-down business reported a pre-tax profit of £108 million for the year to the end of August, excluding what it deems one-off costs.

RBI Guidelines For Cheque Clearing Time: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Wednesday that it has delayed the rollout of Phase 2 of the faster cheque clearance system by banks. The new phase was earlier set to begin on January 3, 2026. The RBI also announced changes to cheque processing timings. Cheques can now be presented between 9 am and 3 pm, while banks will have time from 9 am to 7 pm to confirm or reject them.

“Implementation of phase 2 is being postponed until further notice, to allow more time to banks to streamline their processes,” according to the RBI statement. Phase 1 of the system, which was implemented earlier this year, will continue to operate as usual.

RBI Phase 2 Guidelines

Under the proposed Phase 2 guidelines, banks are required to clear or reject any cheque deposited over the counter within just three hours. This is expected to be a major relief for customers, making payments faster and more efficient once the process starts.

RBI Rolls Out Cheque Truncation System

The RBI introduced continuous clearance under the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) to speed up and simplify cheque clearing. Instead of the old batch system, cheques are now processed using digital images and electronic data. This means banks no longer need to physically transfer cheques, making the process faster and more efficient.

RBI Phase 1 Single Presentation Window

From October 4, 2025, Phase 1 brought in a single, continuous cheque presentation window during the day. Instead of waiting for fixed clearing batches, banks now scan cheques as they receive them and send the cheque images along with MICR data to the clearing house.

Once the drawee bank gets the cheque image, it checks the details and sends an approval or rejection electronically. If the bank does not respond by the end of the confirmation window, the cheque is automatically treated as approved and settled.

RBI Phase 2 Plan For Cheque Clearance 

Phase 2, which was planned to start from January 3, 2026, was meant to further expedite the clearance of cheques to ensure greater convenience for bank customers. Banks would get just three hours to approve or reject a cheque after receiving its image.

If a bank failed to respond within this time, the cheque would be automatically approved and settled. This would have pushed banks to process cheques more quickly and helped customers get their money sooner. However, since phase 2 has been deferred, cheque clearing will continue under the present Phase 1 system, which does not have to follow the three-hour deadline. (With IANS Inputs)

Shoppers descended on UK high streets and retail parks to buy last-minute gifts on Christmas Eve, boosting retailers amid a challenging consumer backdrop.

More shoppers visited shops and retail destinations compared with a year ago, according to early data.

Figures from retail technology specialists MRI Software showed footfall up to 1pm on Christmas Eve was up 2.4% compared with the same day a year earlier.

This also represented a 20.5% jump against a week earlier, with many Britons leaving their shopping late.

It said this was particularly driven by a large number of shoppers visiting retail parks for last-minute purchases.

Retail park footfall rose 6.6% compared with a year earlier and was 36.3% higher week-on-week.

Meanwhile, footfall on high streets lifted by 1.1% year-on-year, and shopping centres reported a 1% increase.

Jenni Matthews, retail analyst at MRI Software, told the Press Association: “It has been a tough year for retailers after they first felt the impact of last year’s autumn budget, which led to increases in labour costs.

“Many are now expecting higher business rates next year too.

“The footfall shows that people are still out and about, shopping in their towns and cities across the country.”

Regional data showed that Wales saw a particular surge in last-minute shopping, with shopper traffic lifting by 7.9% year-on-year.

Many shoppers also ventured into London to snap up presents, with it reporting a 2.6% increase.