Editorial: Andrew Bailey’s guidance is a sign of just how shaky the economy looks November 4, 2022 The latter is always second guessing where governor Andrew Bailey and the rest of the monetary policy committee will send interest rates. The former rarely provides any clues. Investors’ rate expectations are shaped by thousands of pieces of data, but they essentially boil down to a couple of key themes. Firstly, inflation. Markets make their [...]
Business leaders urge govt to restore ‘hard-won reputation for stability’ after rate rise and recession warning November 4, 2022 The government’s must restore the UK’s “hard-won reputation for stability” after this week’s rate hike and warning about a prolonged recession. A top wonk at the Confederation of British Industry responded to the Bank of England’s “bumper rate rise” to 3 per cent shows “the scale of the UK’s inflation challenge”. With inflation now over [...]
Metro Bank shares soar as lender returns to profit November 2, 2022 Metro Bank’s shares soared this morning, after the London-listed lender announced it had returned to profit in September. Investors piled into the stock, lifting shares a little over 10 per cent to 80.1p a piece. “I am really pleased to see the business return to profit in September on both an underlying and statutory basis,” [...]
Exclusive: Confidence in Bank of England hits rock bottom as investors call Bailey’s hiking cycle ‘wrong’ November 2, 2022 Investor confidence in the Bank of England is close to rock bottom as the country braces itself for an eighth successive hike in interest rates tomorrow. Nearly three in four investors feel the Bank had gotten its hiking cycle “wrong”, though respondents were sharply divided over whether rises had come too fast or too slow, [...]
Four new UK banking hubs planned following sector-wide deal November 2, 2022 It has been revealed that four new so-called ‘banking hubs’ will be created across England, with another six to receive support for business deposits, following a review of cash access. Banking hubs are similar to traditional bank branches but spaces are shared. They consist of a counter service operated by Post Office staff, where customers [...]
Calls for Swiss-UK trade deal grow as financial firms ramp up pressure November 2, 2022 A group of top financial firms has ramped up pressure on the government to strike a “ground-breaking” trade deal with Switzerland today in a bid to ease the flow of cash between the two financial centres. The value of trade between the UK and Switzerland hit £38.4bn last year but companies including Credit Suisse, Deloitte, [...]
Call-in powers would be a grave threat to the regulator’s vital independence October 31, 2022 Politicians should be wary of the damage they could do to our regulators’ reputation for independence if they move forward with call-in powers Independence is a funny old thing. At a national level, it can be won and lost in the blink of an eye. At more prosaic levels, building up independence – and a [...]
Libor trader Tom Hayes: I’ll keep fighting to clear my name in UK after US throws out charges October 31, 2022 The former banker who spent five years inside for ‘rigging’ Libor rates has told City A.M. he feels he owes it to other convicted traders to keep fighting to clear his name. Tom Hayes, who worked at UBS, was one of a number of traders sentenced for a cumulative total of almost 50 years for [...]
Libor rigging special: Calls grow to review all convictions of City traders as ‘UK’s position is absurd’ October 31, 2022 A major City scandal that most bankers in London had left behind years ago seems to be coming back with a vengeance. In a new twist in one of the Square Mile’s biggest-ever scandals, the Libor rate-fixing case, British former trader Tom Hayes has had the long-running case against him in the United States thrown out. As [...]
London keeps green finance top spot despite stiff US and European competition October 30, 2022 London has retained its crown as the greenest finance centre in the world, exclusive research shared with City A.M. has revealed. The Square Mile shook off challenges from New York, Amsterdam and Paris to keep the top spot on Z/Yen Group’s latest green finance index. The capital’s radip adoption of green finance products such as [...]