Bank of England Live: Interest rates held as hawks warn of ‘highly uncertain’ energy prices April 30, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has today decided to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent in a hawkish display. In last month’s decision, the Bank held rates in a unanimous decision. Afterwards, short-term gilt yields, which reflect government borrowing costs, sharply rose as traders priced [...]
Exclusive: Lloyds in tie-up with Google to build AI agents April 30, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group has formed a tie-up with Google as the financial services giant sets its sight on building its own AI agents, City AM can reveal. The blue-chip lender is leveraging Google Cloud – the tech giant’s suite of computing services – and the bank’s existing Large Language Model to create a new internal [...]
Monzo lost one current account switcher for every two gained in 2025 April 30, 2026 UK fintech darling Monzo lost one current account switcher for every two it gained last year. The neobank registered just over 20,000 new switchers in the final quarter, but over half of this was offset by the 11,000 thousand outflows. The picture for the final few months of the year mirrors the picture for the [...]
Lloyds fires bank tax warning shot as industry ‘ripe for cash grab’ April 29, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group has warned the Treasury not to look at the banks for a tax raid as the industry sets its sights on booming profits in 2026. The FTSE 100 giant beat profit expectations by a cool £200m in the first-quarter after booking £2bn. This was also followed up by an upgrade to its [...]
Mercedes Benz joins legal battle over £9bn motor finance scheme April 29, 2026 Mercedes Benz is confirmed to be among the four legal challenges lodged against the UK financial watchdog’s motor finance redress scheme. The financial services arm of the German car giant is set to challenge the scheme that puts the car finance industry on the hook for £9.1bn in compensation. The carmarker has thus far set [...]
Santander UK profit slides after motor finance reserves balloon April 29, 2026 Santander UK’s profit took a knock in the first quarter of the year after the bank made another hefty top up to its motor finance provisions. The UK arm of the Spanish banking giant booked a £202m pre-tax profit for the first three months of 2026. This was down 44 per cent from the same [...]
Lloyds shares drop after income upgrade on higher interest rates April 29, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group has upgraded its income targets for the year as the bank expects to bring in more cash as interest rates remain elevated from the Iran war. The FTSE 100 financial giant – which counts Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland among its subsidiaries – said it expects net interest income to [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop as oil holds firm over $110; UK growth slashed April 29, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Oil prices are holding firm tipping over the $110 mark, bringing the cost of a barrel closer to the highs of $118 it peaked at earlier in the Iran war. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil – advanced another one per cent on [...]
AI could trigger a PPI level scandal in ‘two weeks’ April 29, 2026 A multi-billion pound scandal like PPI could happen within just “two weeks” as UK finance firms plough ahead with deploying AI despite uncertainty around governance standards, a fresh report has claimed. The UK’s financial services sector faces a “capability gap” when deploying AI, according to a report from regulatory compliance firm Zango. The research pulled [...]
Banking on a storm: Natwest weathers first of AGM climate rows April 29, 2026 Natwest faced a prickly time in its Edinburgh AGM and in this week’s column Samuel Norman looks at whether fun and games could be in store for its peers. Also on the agenda this week – Revolut heads for some Spanish sun. Natwest chair Rick Haythornthwaite suffered a thorny reception on Tuesday at the bank’s [...]