Climate change: Barclays shareholders call on bank to stop financing fossil fuel firms January 8, 2020 A group of Barclays shareholders have taken formal action against the bank, demanding it stops financing fossil fuel companies that are not aligned with the Paris Agreement’s climate change goals. A group of 11 institutional investors managing over £130bn of assets, coupled with over 100 individual investors have launched the shareholder resolution – thought to [...]
UBS to cut 500 jobs as firm begins wealth unit revamp January 7, 2020 UBS will cut up to 500 jobs at its wealth management business as division co-head Iqbal Khan looks to tackle flagging profit at the bank. The cuts, which amount to roughly two per cent of the division’s workforce, will get rid of three layers of management and split the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Africa [...]
Financial sector contributed record level of UK tax in 2019 January 7, 2020 Britain’s financial services sector contributed a record £75.5bn in tax in 2019, according to a new report on behalf of the City of London Corporation, amounting to 10.5 per cent of all government tax receipts. The report, carried out by accounting giant PwC and released today, highlighted the value of financial services to the UK [...]
Lloyds Bank commits to £18bn of lending for UK companies January 6, 2020 Lloyds Bank has committed to lending £18bn to UK businesses over the course of 2020, the same amount as it promised in 2019 despite the uncertainties of the year ahead. The high-street bank said the money will be lent to companies across the spectrum, from “micro-businesses” to large multinationals. Read more: Barclays, Lloyds and RBS [...]
Andrew Bailey: Three issues the new Bank of England chief will have to tackle January 5, 2020 A safe pair of hands. That’s the cliche about the new Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who will take over the position from Mark Carney in March. The City and the British public will be hoping it is correct. Bailey does indeed have about as much experience of the BoE as it is possible [...]
Wall Street lenders face reporting probes by UK banking watchdog January 4, 2020 A number of Wall Street’s biggest banks are facing investigations from the UK’s banking regulator regarding concerns of widespread financial reporting failures. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is commissioning reports on the quality of data being supplied to it by companies including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to Sky News. The UK operations of [...]
Monzo closes in on £100m funding round December 30, 2019 Digital bank Monzo is close to securing up to £100m of funding to drive forward its growth plans. New and existing investors are involved in the ongoing fundraising talks, and the move could be followed by a larger funding round next year. Read more: Challenger bank Monzo launches loans The new investment, which was first [...]
Mark Carney warns financial sector over climate change December 30, 2019 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the financial sector must stop investing in fossil fuels faster in order to avoid irreversible global warming. Carney, who will step down from his central bank role next year, said pension fund analysis showed that “if you add up the policies of all of companies out [...]
Interest rates unlikely to rise in 2020, says ECB policymaker Robert Holzmann December 28, 2019 A European Central Bank policymaker has said it is unlikely interest rates will be lifted back into positive territory next year. Robert Holzmann cited Brexit as being likely to cause renewed concern toward the end of 2020. Read more: New ECB president Legarde tells governments to hite spending to tackle downturn The governing council voted [...]
Softbank board loses dissenting voice as Uniqlo founder leaves December 27, 2019 The founder of clothes company Uniqlo will resign from the board of Softbank after 18 months in the job. Tadashi Yanai, who is chief executive of Uniqlo, will leave the Softbank independent board member post at the end of the month to focus on his fashion business. Read more: Softbank ‘tightening governance’ at firms it [...]