Global anti-money laundering fines surge as regulators dole out tougher penalties August 23, 2021 Global anti-money laundering (AML) fines at banks and financial services firms soared to $2.2bn (£1.6bn) last year, fives times higher than in 2019, as regulators have stuck to tougher lines on the industry, according to reports. In its latest review Kroll, a governance and risk consultancy, found that watchdogs levied almost $1bn of AML fines in [...]
Flying high: Former RBS and RSA boss Stephen Hester to be next Easyjet chairman August 23, 2021 City heavyweight Stephen Hester, who led RBS and insurer RSA, has been named the next chairman of budget airline Easyjet. Easyjet this morning named Hester as its director and chair designate. Hester will join the Board as a non-executive director on 1 September and then he will succeed John Barton as the airline’s chair on [...]
JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon plans first UK visit since Covid hit August 23, 2021 JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon will visit London next month for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak. The trip could result in fresh momentum for workers to return to the City as the banker has advocated for office-working. The Wall Street banking boss will meet clients and staff after an initial scheduled trip [...]
Worst performing investment funds worth £30bn are revealed in report August 20, 2021 An online investment service, Bestinvest, has published it’s latest “Spot the Dog” report naming and shaming 77 investment funds which have consistently underperformed the markets they invest in. Although 77 investment funds across a range of equity markets worldwide were identified in the latest report, which is published twice a year, it marks a sharp [...]
Law firm Irwin Mitchell reaches ‘landmark’ £1bn assets under management August 20, 2021 Irwin Mitchell’s wealth management team has reached £1bn of assets under management (AUM) this week, the company has announced today. The firm, which also recently announced an 11th year of consecutive growth, launched its wealth management division in 2000 and focussed on providing financial planning and investment management to personal injury clients in receipt of [...]
Saxo Bank profits shrink despite attracting record levels of new clients August 20, 2021 Danish investment bank Saxo Bank posted a weak set of results for the first six months of this year despite attracting record levels of new clients. Profits at the investment bank dipped to £59m in the year to June 2021, down from £60.9m in the same period last year. The bank’s client base climbed by [...]
Locked out: Sky broadband outage hits online banking apps August 20, 2021 A string of online banking apps, including HSBC and Santander, all experienced malfunctions this morning, which was down to a Sky broadband issue. Hundreds of customers had reportedly been locked out of HSBC, Santander, NatWest, Halifax and TSB apps and online banking websites. The banking app for TSB was also thought to be experiencing an [...]
Profits more than double at OneSavings Bank August 20, 2021 OneSavings Bank’s profit surged in the first six months of the year driven by a sharp uptick in lending activity, according to results published today. The specialist lender posted a 123 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in the year to June 2021 to £221.9m, up from £99.3m in the same period last year. The [...]
HSBC launches legal action against El Salvador to recover $50m August 20, 2021 HSBC has launched legal action against a South American nation in a bid to recover almost $50m it thinks was wrongly awarded against it. The UK’s largest banking group is suing El Salvador over a dispute dating back to 2007 that is understood to be mainly focused on a $2m loan made to a local [...]
Exclusive: ‘When I started, diversity didn’t really exist’, says Bank of America’s international head of ESG August 19, 2021 In this series, City A.M. zooms in on a range of successful women in the Square Mile, some being movers and shakers in their respective fields – rule makers, not rule takers – while others are rising stars worth keeping an eye on. Today: Andrea Sullivan, international head of ESG at Bank of America. An M&A [...]