Santander shares soar five per cent as lender bets on Europe to boost pay-outs and ‘ambitious’ profit targets February 28, 2023 Santander plans to return half its profits to shareholders after announcing “ambitious” profitability targets for the next three years. The Spanish banking giant said it was betting on customer growth and higher interest rates in Europe to boost its revenue. Santander has previously relied on its Latin American presence to offset the tough conditions experienced [...]
Credit Suisse relationship with Greensill Capital ‘seriously breached’ rules, says Swiss regulator February 28, 2023 Credit Suisse “seriously breached its supervisory obligations” in its relationship with Greensill Capital, according to the Swiss financial watchdog Finma. Finma said the failures were due to poor risk management and “serious deficiencies” in its organisational structures After concluding its probe, Finma has ordered the bank to “periodically review” its most important business relationships, in [...]
Red tape for small banks to be reduced as regulator looks to boost sector’s competitiveness February 27, 2023 The banking regulator has announced plans to reduce restrictions on small banks, saying it would take its new competitiveness mandate seriously. Announcing the regulations, Vicky Saporta, executive director at the Bank of England, said: “the importance of competition means that we need to act when rules that are proportionate for large firms are not proportionate [...]
Revolut set to secure UK banking licence within weeks after releasing late accounts February 26, 2023 The digital bank is on track to clear a major hurdle to receiving formal recognition from regulators this week when it releases its long overdue financial accounts for 2021.
Norwegian billionaire fails to overturn conviction for lying to UK court in £285m Deutsche Bank dispute February 26, 2023 Norwegian billionaire Alexander Vik has failed to overturn a conviction for lying to a UK court during a £285m dispute with Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank first sued the magnate’s company, Sebastian Holdings, back in 2009 over a series of loss-making foreign exchange deals, and the court has since ordered the firm to pay $243m (£203m) [...]
HSBC doubles down on homeworking as Lloyd’s of London pushes for return to City HQ February 26, 2023 HSBC’s and Lloyd’s rival plans for the futures of their London headquarters have revealed a growing split in attitudes towards the long-term prospects of working from home. Lloyd’s of London is reportedly in talks to extend the lease on its iconic City headquarters as it works to bring staff back into the office in resisting [...]
The Notebook: Victoria Scholar on a wave of bank results, Elon Musk, and a holiday read February 22, 2023 The Notebook is where interesting people say interesting things. Today it’s Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor, on bank results, Elon Musk and an unputdownable holiday read Bank on it? With UK banks currently reporting earnings, key themes so far have been rising interest rates, growing credit loss provisions, share buybacks, volatile financial [...]
Lloyds Bank: Shares fall after bumping up ‘bad loan’ recession provisions February 22, 2023 Lloyds Bank reported that higher interest rates offset the money set aside to cope with loan defaults during the final quarter of 2022, but disappointed the market with yet more conservative guidance on net interest margin for 2023. Lloyds recorded a pretax profit of £1.8bn during the quarter, in line with company-compiled consensus and over [...]
Analysis: Has HSBC’s Noel Quinn done enough to ward off Ping An’s split campaign? February 21, 2023 HSBC’s CEO Noel Quinn said today that “international connectivity remains our greatest strength.” It was clear he was attempting to ward off shareholder Ping An’s ongoing campaign to spin out HSBC’s Asian business, which makes the majority of the bank’s profit. Quinn was speaking after the lender announced its results for the final quarter of [...]
Credit Suisse shares plunge to fresh lows as chair faces investigation February 21, 2023 Shares in beleaguered lender Credit Suisse plunged to fresh lows today after it was revealed that chair Axel Lehmann is under investigation from Swiss regulators over potentially misleading claims made to the media last year.