BoE hires Accenture in £150m deal to overhaul payments system July 30, 2020 The Bank of England has hired IT consulting firm Accenture to refresh a key part of the UK’s crucial payments system in a deal worth up to £150m. The firm will overhaul the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) service, the backbone of the country’s huge payments system. RTGS settles an average £685bn of payments each working [...]
We’ve relaxed the rules for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme to give our smallest firms a chance July 30, 2020 Our government-backed loan schemes have been a demonstration of what can happen when banks, the government and businesses work together. In a time of extreme disruption and uncertainty, we got much-needed support out to businesses when they needed it most. This protected jobs and livelihoods, and meant that when we were able to start safely [...]
Standard Chartered profit slumps as credit impairments mount July 30, 2020 Standard Chartered suffered a 33 per cent drop in pre-tax profit in the first half of the year as it braced itself for loans to go bad amid the coronavirus pandemic. The bank’s shares dropped 3.9 per cent after it said it expects “expect new waves of Covid-19 related challenge in the coming quarters”. The [...]
Schroders profit dips in first half even as assets rise July 30, 2020 Schroders today posted a 10 per cent fall in profit before tax and exceptional items in the first half of the year amid rising outflows in mutual funds and a contraction in revenue margins. Britain’s largest-listed fund manager by market capitalisation reported £306.2m in profit before tax and exceptional items for the first half of [...]
Treasury tells banks to boost coronavirus lending after rule change July 30, 2020 The Treasury has told banks they should be lending more to struggling companies through the main coronavirus loan scheme after changes to EU state aid rules come into effect today. European Union rules had meant some viable British firms with significant debts or that were growing and spending fast were classed as “undertakings in difficulty”. [...]
Barclays urges staff back to the office as HSBC eyes September return July 29, 2020 Barclays boss Jes Staley has indicated he wants employees to return to the office, as HSBC reportedly tells its staff they can work in Canary Wharf from September. Speaking to Bloomberg TV today, Staley said: “It is important to get people back together in physical concentrations.” He has previously said big city offices “may be [...]
Coronavirus pushes Santander to €11bn loss July 29, 2020 Santander suffered a record loss of €11bn (£10bn) in its latest half-year, it revealed today, as coronavirus provisions tanked its bottom line. The figures A massive €12.6bn impairment relating to coronavirus meant Santander swung to a €10.8bn loss for the first half of 2020. Underlying profit before tax halved to €3.8bn year on year. And [...]
Deutsche Bank boosted by bond trading amid pandemic July 29, 2020 Deutsche Bank reported its biggest surge in fixed income trading revenue in eight years amid the coronavirus crisis. The figures Deutsche Bank reported pre-tax profit of €158m compared to a pre-tax loss of €946m in the second quarter of 2019. It also reported net profit of €61m compared to a net loss of €3.1bn in [...]
Barclays braces for pandemic blow with extra £1.6bn cushion July 29, 2020 Barclays has set aside £1.6bn to insulate itself against further loan losses in the coronavirus-hit second quarter of 2020, it revealed today, a higher sum than analysts expected. Bank forecasts had pointed to a £1.42bn total but the £1.6bn figure for April to June brings Barclays’ total provisions to £3.7bn. That sum could reach £5.79bn [...]
HSBC to ‘at least double’ black employees in its upper ranks July 28, 2020 HSBC has reportedly told staff it will “at least double” the number of black employees in its upper ranks but said it will have to collect the data first. In an internal memo first seen by the Guardian, chief executive Noel Quinn admitted that the bank’s failure to publish data on ethnicity had created a [...]