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 [...]
Difficult decision to come from Sunak and Hunt on bank surcharge October 30, 2022 The government has not ruled out reversing a tax cut on the UK’s biggest banks as it scrambles to overfill a huge hole in the public finances. Asked today by City A.M. if chancellor Jeremy Hunt and prime minister Rishi Sunak would commit to cutting the bank surcharge, an effective windfall tax, the Treasury said [...]
Ex Fed official says Bank of England ‘contributed to the Truss govt’s demise’ October 28, 2022 A top former official with the US Federal Reserve has claimed the Bank of England ousted Liz Truss. Narayana Kocherlakota, the ex president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, made his comments in a piece for Bloomberg this week. This comes after Truss left office following weeks of chaos in UK financial markets sparked [...]
NatWest: No ‘signs of heightened financial distress’ from customers yet October 28, 2022 NatWest has said it is not yet “seeing signs of heightened financial distress” from customers, after posting a £1.1bn flat quarterly profit. Analysts had forecast a pre-tax profit of £1.2bn, with the bank just missing this. Alison Rose, the chief executive, said the big four bank was “acutely aware of the challenges that people, families [...]
Government eyes bank surcharge U-turn despite Lloyds profits tumbling October 27, 2022 Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, Lloyds Bank, has set aside hundreds of millions of pounds in preparation for a surge in loan defaults caused by the rising cost of living and higher interest rates squeezing household budgets. The lender today said it had banked £668m over the three months to September to absorb souring loans, primarily [...]