Standard Chartered unveils $1bn share buy back plan April 30, 2019 Shares in Standard Chartered rose this morning after the bank unveiled plans for an up to $1bn (773.2m) share buy back and posted a 10 per cent jump in profits for the first quarter of 2019. Underlying profit before tax was up 10 per cent to $1.4bn, the bank announced today, as it revealed that [...]
Profits plunge by over a third at Danske Bank as customers close accounts after scandal April 30, 2019 Profits at under-fire Danske Bank plunged this quarter as the Danish bank continues to deal with fallout from a money-laundering scandal which shook it to its core. Net profit fell 39 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, to 3bn Danish krone, as the bank faced higher expenses and impairments. Read more: EU [...]
Restructuring and foreign currency headwinds hammer Santander profits April 30, 2019 Santander saw profits fall by a tenth as the Spanish banking giant kicked on with a major restructuring in the UK and Poland. Read more: Santander and Barclays face lawsuits over film financing schemes The company was also hit by high inflation in Argentina which hampered earnings further, despite customer growth across its core markets [...]
Metro Bank investors urged to block re-election of chairman and founder Vernon Hill over payments to his wife’s firm April 29, 2019 Metro Bank shareholders have been urged to vote against the re-election of chairman and founder Vernon Hill as the lender battles the aftermath of a loans blunder. Shareholder advisory group Glass Lewis raised concerns over payments made by the bank to Hill’s wife’s architecture firm InterArch, which has a contract for the design of its [...]
EU needs to overhaul money laundering safeguards, top official says April 29, 2019 The EU’s head of financial regulation has called on the bloc to rehaul the way it investigates money-laundering cases after it dropped a probe into scandal-hit Danske Bank. Valdis Dombrovskis, the vice president of the European Commission, said the European Banking Authority (EBA) must change the way it takes decisions on whether union law has [...]
Revealed: Tesco and Metro are the worst challenger banks, according to customers April 29, 2019 Tesco Bank and Metro Bank are the worst challenger banks in the eyes of consumers, a new sentiment index has revealed. A new report into the sentiment of UK challenger banks by data firm Brands Eye found that Monzo and Atom Bank led the way. Read more: Tesco Bank slapped with £16.4m fine for data breach [...]
Barclays shares: Optimists see an opportunity April 29, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. These results do not impress, but there’s lots going on at Barclays and plenty to interest investors. Without the attention generated by activist investor Edward Bramson, it’s likely that last week’s lacklustre investment banking performance at Barclays (LSE:BARC) may have been passed off as just another quarter blighted by [...]
Natwest online banking outage: Bank apologises as customers unable to access accounts April 29, 2019 Natwest customers have been frozen out of their accounts this morning due to an online outage. The bank confirmed on Twitter that it had been experiencing issues and has been instructing customers to delete temporary internet files and try again. Read more: TSB online banking outage hits customers The outage began at around 5am, according [...]
Non-Standard Finance extends deadline for Provident shareholders to accept £1.3bn hostile takeover April 29, 2019 Non-Standard Finance (NSF) has set 15 May as its final closing date to secure its hostile takeover of rival Provident Financial, urging shareholders to back it to break the “status quo”. Read more: Provident lashes out at 'unlawful' NSF payments amid takeover dispute The new date signals a week’s delay to the previous deadline to [...]
Top banks inject $9m into London fintech startup Mosaic Smart Data April 29, 2019 The venture capital arm of Commerzbank and London investor Octopus Ventures have co-led a $9m (£7m) funding round into fintech startup Mosaic Smart Data. Existing backer and client JP Morgan also participated in the round, adding to its minority stake in the startup. The bank signed a multi-year deal to use Mosaic’s technology – which [...]