Lloyds Bank handed capital boost by regulator raising chances of more share buybacks May 1, 2019 Lloyds Bank shareholders could be set for higher dividends and another share buyback programme after the UK regulator loosened its risk buffer. The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) reduced the rate for the “systemic risk buffer” of extra capital the bank needs to hold. Read more: Lloyds Bank to pay £10m to customers [...]
Extinction Rebellion climate change protesters want to destroy the UK’s financial sector May 1, 2019 The founder of Extinction Rebellion has ambitions to upend the UK’s financial system after her organisation targeted the City in two weeks of London protests. Gail Bradbrook wants to provoke a “mass refusal” to pay off loans and mortgages in a bid to throw London’s financial district into disarray following action that saw climate change [...]
European Central Bank hikes supervision fees by 21 per cent as Brexit takes financial toll April 30, 2019 The European Central Bank (ECB) today increased supervisory fees by 21 per cent as it seeks to cover higher than expected costs to prepare for Brexit. Read more: Euro falls as ECB chief Draghi bearish on Eurozone economy The hike amounts to an estimated €576m charge on banks this year, up from €502.2m in 2018, as a [...]
Wealth management apps could ‘eclipse’ traditional channels, EY finds April 30, 2019 Digital wealth management apps could “eclipse” traditional channels as clients move towards new technology faster than previously anticipated, new research shows. The popularity of mobile apps among wealth management clients has increased faster than predicted, with 41 per cent of clients saying they would prefer to use a mobile app over websites, face-to-face interaction and [...]
Trump sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One to block subpoenas to release financial records April 30, 2019 US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and Capital One in a bid to block the release of his financial records. Two US House Committees issued the banks with subpoenas earlier this month to release Trump’s business records as part of an investigation into the Trump family finances. Read more: US [...]
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 [...]