Bank of England could cut interest rates to near zero in no-deal Brexit July 12, 2019 Interest rates could be cut to almost zero if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, a top official at the Bank of England said today. Gertjan Vlieghe, a member of the Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC), told an audience in London today that Threadneedle Street might have to slash rates to nearly [...]
Deutsche Bank: saved in the nick of time? July 11, 2019 Will this be seen as the week when the Deutsche Bank supertanker started to turn, or began to list? The scale of the restructuring announced by chief executive Christian Sewing was certainly dramatic, but it left many in the City asking why the bank had waited so long before attempting to change course. Traders in the [...]
German fintech challenger bank N26 launches in the US July 11, 2019 German fintech giant N26 has today launched its services in the US, making it the second major European digital bank to cross the pond. Starting today in a staged rollout, the 100,000 customers on N26’s US waiting list will be invited to open an account and have full access to the bank’s app and debit card. [...]
US Department of Justice probes Deutsche Bank links with 1MDB July 11, 2019 Deutsche Bank is reportedly being investigated by the US Department of Justice over whether it violated anti-money laundering laws in its work with scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1MDB. US officials are understood to be probing the German lender over its ties with the 1MDB investment vehicle between the years of 2009 and 2014, when billions [...]
Banks can cope with no-deal Brexit but risks remain, says BoE July 11, 2019 The UK financial system is strong enough to cope with a severe global slowdown and a “worst-case” disorderly Brexit simultaneously, the Bank of England has said. Read more: No-deal Brexit fears have increased, Bank of England governor warns Yet it warned that an increasingly likely no-deal scenario posed “material risks of economic disruption” and would [...]
European banking stress tests too soft, auditor group warns July 10, 2019 Stress tests designed to assess the health of European banks have not taken some systemic risks into account, according to a major auditing report released today. The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has found “shortcomings for assessing resilience against systemic risk” in the stress tests carried out by the European Banking Authority (EBA), raising questions [...]
Annual fall in suspect share dealing occurring before takeovers, FCA report finds July 9, 2019 Suspect share price movements that occur before takeover announcements and imply insider trading fell to its lowest level in more than a decade last year, the UK’s financial watchdog revealed yesterday. Roughly one in ten takeovers were linked with unusual share price moves over the course of 2018, according to a “market cleanliness” indicator released [...]
Deutsche Bank share price falls for second day amid turnaround doubts July 9, 2019 Deutsche Bank’s share price took a further knocking today, as investor uncertainty over the firm’s drastic business overhaul showed no sign of easing. Shares in the German lender tumbled a further 3.5 per cent to €6.57 this afternoon, adding to yesterday’s losses after the company unveiled cost-cutting plans to axe 18,000 jobs and shut its [...]
Calls for bank forgery claims to be investigated by authorities July 9, 2019 The chair of an influential committee of MPs has demanded that allegations of banks forging signatures should be investigated. Nicky Morgan, who chairs the Treasury Select Committee, has called on the City’s watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to probe claims that home repossessions and other such documents have [...]
Why don’t banks care about SMEs? July 9, 2019 For a service sector dealing almost solely with numbers and structured data, the world of small business lending could not be better suited to disruption by digital machines. But recently, Bank of England governor Mark Carney rightly pointed out that, despite small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) facing a £22bn funding gap, almost half don’t [...]