Nationwide to refund customers £900,000 for overdraft text failures February 6, 2020 Nationwide will repay £900,000 to customers after it failed to correctly warn them that they would be charged for entering an unarranged overdraft. The move follows an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which ruled that the building society fell foul of rules stating customers with personal current accounts must receive a text [...]
$65bn Ponzi scheme king Bernie Madoff is dying, and wants to leave prison early February 6, 2020 Ponzi scheme king Bernie Madoff has said he is dying of kidney failure and has fewer than 18 months to live, and is seeking to end his 150-year prison sentence. Madoff’s lawyer said the 81-year-old is confined to a wheelchair, often requires oxygen, and suffers from cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insomnia and other chronic and serious [...]
Deutsche Bank adds investment giant Capital Group as major shareholder February 6, 2020 Deutsche Bank has welcomed Capital Group as a major shareholder after the Los Angeles-based investment giant has bought a 3.1 per cent stake in the German bank. The investment, disclosed in a regulatory filing, makes Capital — which managed $1.8 trillion— one of Deutsche’s largest shareholders. It also marks the first major new shareholder in [...]
HSBC will not appoint new boss until after strategy shake-up February 6, 2020 HSBC will not name a permanent chief executive when it unveils a major strategic overhaul later this month, despite investor expectations that a new boss would be in place before the plan is announced. Noel Quinn, who was appointed interim chief executive of the bank six months ago, is preparing to announce the strategic shake-up [...]
ING profit tumbles as bad loans and regulatory costs weigh February 6, 2020 ING has reported a significant decline in net profit following a “challenging” end to the year for the Netherlands’ largest bank. The lender reported a 29 per cent drop in year-on-year net profit, which fell to €1.2bn (£1bn) amid a sharp increase in bad loans during the fourth quarter, due in part to a fraud [...]
Societe Generale courts shareholders with possible buyback February 6, 2020 Societe Generale boosted its capital in 2019 due to asset sales, and said it would introduce a new shareholder remuneration policy including the possibility of share buybacks. France’s largest bank guided that its profitability would improve in 2020, although it fell short of mentioning its previous return on tangible equity (ROTE) guidance of between nine [...]
BoE policymaker calls for stress testing to go beyond banking sector February 5, 2020 A Bank of England (BoE) policymaker has called for bank stress testing to extend beyond the banking sector. Speaking at the European Central Bank’s stress testing conference in Frankfurt, Donald Kohn said that the bank was looking at opening up stress testing to hedge funds and open-ended funds. Stress tests are used by the BoE [...]
Credit Suisse shareholders back chief executive in board battle February 5, 2020 Three top Credit Suisse investors have backed chief executive Tidjane Thiam in a power struggle with chairman Urs Rohner as the Swiss bank grapples with the aftermath of a spying scandal. Relations between the pair are understood to have come under increased strain since the revelation that the bank had hired a corporate espionage agency [...]
HSBC set to axe senior managers in strategy shift February 5, 2020 HSBC is reportedly set to unveil a strategy overhaul which will see a new round of job cuts targeting senior managers and reduce its presence in some smaller markets. Reuters reported that the changes are expected to be part of a strategy update by interim chief executive Noel Quinn on 18 February. The restructuring is [...]
Barclays under pressure from second investor group over fossil fuel financing February 5, 2020 Barclays is facing increased pressure over its financing of fossil fuel producers, as it emerged that a second influential shareholder group is pushing the bank to adopt stricter climate change policies. The Investor Forum, whose 50 members control £18.5 trillion assets, has held discussions with the British lender over its climate policies, the Financial Times [...]