Close Brothers share price falls as sets aside £90m for legal loans January 20, 2023 Close Brothers will set aside an additional £90m in its 2023 financial statements against bad loans from legal-finance specialist Novitas Loans. Close Brothers acquired Novitas in 2017. In 2021 Close Brothers ceased approval of new loans from Novitas and let existing loans run off. In a statement today, the merchant banking group said Novitas was [...]
Davos round-up: BoA ‘over-achieved’ on hiring, Morgan Stanley’s succession plan and Shapps searches for Britain’s Silicon Valley January 19, 2023 As some of the world’s most important CEOs, politicians and thinkers gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, City A.M. wraps up some of the top lines from the day. US bank layoffs Major Wall Street lenders have been forced into making large scale redundancies in the face of a global economic slowdown. Goldman’s [...]
UK banks’ shares slide on fears of recession and bad debt January 19, 2023 UK banks’ share prices dipped on Thursday as increasing fears of recession, bad debt and a fairly poor set of US bank earnings this week spooked investors. Barclays shed 2.8 per cent, HSBC 0.6 per cent and Standard Chartered 0.8 per cent. Domestic-focused lenders Lloyds and Natwest also traded lower, finishing down 1.0 per cent [...]
HSBC will face no penalty for breaching open banking rules over 50 times January 19, 2023 The Competition & Markets Authority has criticised HSBC for breaching open banking rules on over 50 occasions, but the banking giant has been told it will receive no penalty. HSBC published inaccurate information and failed to publish required information on more than 50 occasions over the last five years, the watchdog said. The violations of [...]
‘We’re all terrified of being accused of greenwashing’, Standard Chartered boss tells Davos January 19, 2023 Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters demanded clear rules on climate financing at a Davos meeting as potential lenders are “terrified of being accused of greenwashing”. Winters agreed with panellists that there needed to be much more action on financing climate change initiatives. However, he warned there needed to be standards on “what’s a good project [...]
Crypto Exchange OKX builds user trust by taking proof of reserves to the next level January 19, 2023 | City Talk In the crypto markets, transparency is everything, and the most important metric to demonstrate transparency is Proof of Reserves (PoR). OKX is leading the industry in transparency through our efforts to prove our holdings using blockchain technology. Proof of Reserves provides assurances that exchanges are able to match customer holdings with an equal or greater [...]
US lawsuit alleges Jes Staley saw Jeffrey Epstein abuse young women – report January 18, 2023 A US lawsuit filed today has accused former head of Barclays Jes Staley of “personally observ[ing] the sexual abuse of young women” by Jeffrey Epstein. Staley is named in a lawsuit filed by one of Epstein’s victims, known as Jane Doe 1, who is suing JP Morgan for allegedly facilitating her sexual abuse. Staley was [...]
Davos round-up: Goldman’s consumer banking headache, Big Tech layoffs and Germany’s green drive January 18, 2023 As some of the world’s most important CEOs, politicians and thinkers gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss an array of economic, political and social challenges, City A.M. wraps up some of the top lines from the day. Goldman Sachs’ consumer banking headache Goldman Sachs’ foray into consumer banking has not gone [...]
Credit Suisse to offer senior bankers cash bonus upfront to ‘reward loyalty’ and stem talent outflow January 18, 2023 Credit Suisse is considering offering its senior executives upfront bonuses as it seeks to incentivise its top performing staff to stay at the bank. An internal memo seen by City A.M. said that managing directors and directors “in most locations” will be awarded the cash component of their variable compensation upfront. The memo said upfront [...]
Davos: Top central bankers agree on need to regulate ‘crazy’ crypto markets January 18, 2023 Some of the world’s top central bankers today emphasized the need for introducing basic regulations for cryptocurrencies, but they remained equally wary that new rules could lend legitimacy to an industry that has been very unstable over the past year. The central bank chiefs agreed on the need for a basic level of crypto regulation, [...]