More than three quarters of RBS staff set to work from home until at least September May 21, 2020 More than 50,000 of RBS’ staff will continue to work from home until at least the end of September. The decision to keep more than three quarters of the bank’s workforce at home for the next four months was revealed in an internal memo, first reported by the Guardian. It will then be reviewed again [...]
Lloyds boss says bank can absorb coronavirus loan defaults May 21, 2020 The chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group today said the bank would be able to soak up a jump in loan defaults triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Antonio Horta-Osorio told the bank’s annual meeting today that supporting customers hit hard by the pandemic was the “right thing to do”, but would have a financial impact [...]
Investec takes £105m hit to profit as coronavirus affects trading income May 21, 2020 Investec has said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its operating profit of the year was £105m, as trading income fell 7.5 per cent. The figures Investec’s adjusted operating profit for the full year was 16.8 per cent behind the prior year, at £608.9m. Adjusted operating profit from continuing operations of £419.2m was 24.1 [...]
Government seizes £150m from dormant bank accounts for Covid-19 response May 20, 2020 The government is raiding dormant bank and building society accounts across the UK to help fund its response to the coronavirus crisis. Roughly £150m will be seized to help charities, social enterprises and vulnerable individuals during the pandemic, culture secretary Oliver Dowden said today. This includes £71m that will be sourced through the government’s dormant [...]
BoE’s Andrew Bailey: It would be ‘foolish’ to rule out negative interest rates May 20, 2020 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has said it would be “foolish” to rule out negative interest rates but said the BoE is “not ruling it in” either. The governor has previously argued against negative rates but admitted today: “I have changed my position a bit.” Chatter about negative interest rates has increased in recent [...]
Brexit: Minister won’t rule out prospect of City losing EU access over fishing policy row May 19, 2020 A senior minister has refused to rule out the prospect of the UK’s financial services industry losing access to EU markets over a row with Brussels over fishing policy. Environment secretary George Eustice at today’s press briefing said the government would not “get into saying you have to sacrifice one industry in order to give [...]
Bank of England to name recipients of coronavirus loans May 19, 2020 The Bank of England has said it will start naming the companies that use its coronavirus lending facility in a bid to increase transparency about which firms are being bailed out. Firms using the Bank’s covid corporate financing facility (CCFF) will also be expected to start “showing restraint” on dividend payments, share buy-backs and senior [...]
Regulator asks for mobile data in Credit Suisse spying probe May 19, 2020 Swiss regulators have asked for message data from the mobile phones of several Credit Suisse managers and supervisory board directors as part of an investigation into spying at the bank, Reuters reported citing sources. Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA is examining the culture and governance of the bank and whether management failures led to spying operations [...]
Traders bet on Bank of England launching negative interest rates May 18, 2020 Traders are betting that the Bank of England introduces negative interest rates for the first time ever, pushing the pound to a three-week low today. Interest rate futures contracts from December dipped into negative territory today as the money markets speculated that British interest rates would fall below zero in the coming months. Comments by [...]
Coronavirus triggers profit warning spike for financial services businesses May 18, 2020 UK listed financial services businesses have issued more profit warnings this year than in the whole of 2019 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. UK-listed financial services firms have issued 31 covid-19 related profit warnings so far this year, according to analysis from EY, representing 17 per cent of the Ftse financial services sector. [...]