Standard Chartered appoints new finance chief as Andy Halford steps down after a decade August 31, 2023 Standard Chartered finance chief Andy Halford has announced he will step down having served for nearly a decade in the role. Halford, who has been at the bank since 2014, will be replaced by Diego de Giorgi, most recently co-CEO of Pegasus Europe, Europe’s largest-ever special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Prior to his role at [...]
Credit Suisse takeover helps UBS to huge profit of £23bn as integration begins August 31, 2023 UBS reported a pretax profit of £22.8bn ($29.2bn) thanks to its takeover of long time rival Credit Suisse, as it confirmed it will controversially integrate the bank’s domestic lending. UBS’s pretax profit soared to $29.2bn, with the vast majority of this comprising a ‘negative goodwill’ of $28.9bn. ‘ Negative goodwill’ reflects the difference between the [...]
Former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers accused of carpet fraud August 30, 2023 Former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers has been accused of defrauding someone of carpets and by using cheques while acting under a power of attorney. The case against the 73-year-old was detailed in court listings at a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, where the case was adjourned until next week. Flowers was not present for [...]
New borrowing slows as Bank of England’s rate hikes take effect August 30, 2023 Consumer borrowing increased at a slower rate than expected last month as the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes hit demand for new loans. Bank of England figures out this morning showed that the monthly increase in consumer credit was £1.2bn, £400m less than the £1.6bn increase seen in June. Although borrowing on credit cards [...]
High street banks pull back from SME lending despite increasing demand August 30, 2023 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are finding it increasingly difficult to access funding from high street banks, new data out today shows. According to data from fintech firm iwoca, 84 per cent of finance brokers said high street banks were increasingly reluctant to lend to SMEs. This was seven percentage points more than the quarter [...]
Mortgage lending falls by a third as borrowers avoid bank switch stress tests August 29, 2023 Increasing pressure on the housing market drove down activity in mortgage lending and led to changes in the market, new data out today shows. According to UK Finance data, lending for house purchases in the second quarter stood around 30 per cent lower than the same period last year. The industry body said this stemmed [...]
UBS settles Credit Suisse lawsuit with Swiss financial blog Inside Paradeplatz August 29, 2023 UBS and Swiss finance blog Inside Paradeplatz have settled a lawsuit relating to comments published on the site about Credit Suisse.
A Legacy of Difference Making August 24, 2023 | Sponsored We were basically running insurance companies,” the likable Barry Gale tells City A.M. of his career before joining Aon. Gale was at a Big Four consultancy firm, working on restructuring and insolvency. “But without the front-end, bringing in new clients.” He and his colleagues soon found out that winding up insurance firms was notably more [...]
Financial crime fines fall 88 per cent globally – but agencies aren’t about to go easy on wrongdoers August 24, 2023 The total value of fines handed out to banks and financial services firms for financial crime violations slumped in the first half of this year, according to new data. But experts argued regulators aren’t going easy on wrongdoers. According to data from compliance firm Fenergo, regulators worldwide issued 97 financial crime-related fines in the first [...]
‘Don’t be a TWaT’: Goldman orders staff to ‘work in the office five days a week’ August 23, 2023 Goldman Sachs has reminded its employees to come into the office five days a week as banks continue the fight to get staff back into the office. The Wall Street giant led the way in demanding that employees come back into work after the pandemic. Boss David Solomon has previously described homeworking as an aberration. [...]