Saga shares rise as it partners with Goldman Sachs to offer savings products June 11, 2019 Over 50s insurance and tourism group Saga announced today it is partnering with Goldman Sachs to offer savings products to its clients. The move is part of a strategy aimed at turning the company around after a poor run of results. In April its shares dived 40 per cent after it warned that Brexit uncertainty [...]
Bank of England chief economist says UK rate rise is on the horizon June 8, 2019 The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, has said the UK is nearing the time it will need to raise interest rates to keep inflation pressures in check. Haldane wrote in The Sun on Saturday that “a lost decade” of wage growth is coming to an end ahead of “steady if not spectacular” growth [...]
FCA to overhaul banks’ ‘dysfunctional’ overdraft fees June 7, 2019 The financial regulator will set out to stop banks from charging higher fees for unarranged overdrafts, it confirmed today. Read more: Consumers could save ‘£100m a year’ from overdraft shake-up The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) laid out planned reforms to the “dysfunctional” overdraft market in a bid to make such arrangements simpler, fairer and easier [...]
Banking union raises concerns over TSB plan to cut more than 100 jobs June 6, 2019 A banking union has raised concerns over TSB’s plans to cut around 125 jobs as part of a major restructuring. In an email to TSB members, banking union Accord said the restructuring would result in 124 job losses with 366 members of staff facing the consultation process. Read more: TSB unveils raft of leadership changes [...]
Mark Carney says investment funds could risk global economy amid Woodford suspension June 6, 2019 Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned today that investment funds of the sort run by Neil Woodford need to be more carefully scrutinised. Speaking in Tokyo Carney said: “Over half of investment funds have a structural mismatch between the frequency with which they offer redemptions and the time it would take them to liquidate [...]
French bank Credit Agricole raises profit target to €5bn by 2022 June 6, 2019 French bank Credit Agricole has increased its profit target to €5bn (£4.34bn) by 2022 after reaching this year’s goal ahead of schedule. The bank reached its 2019 targets a year early and has unveiled higher profit targets for the next three years. Read more: European Central Bank fines Credit Agricole for reporting errors Its new [...]
Contactless and mobile payments surge in UK in 2018 June 6, 2019 The number of contactless payments made in the UK surged in 2018, new figures have shown, as all Britons’ from grandparents to teenagers increased their use of the technology. Read more: Credit card spending shoots up as customers turn to extra protections Meanwhile, the use of cash continued to decline, with only four per cent [...]
Barclays and RBS fined in forex rigging scandal June 6, 2019 Five banks including Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have been hit with a SFr 90m (£71.39m) fine for fixing the foreign exchange market. Traders at Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, RBS and UBS took part in a “three way banana split” cartel between 2007 and 2013 to manipulate the forex market, the Swiss competition regulator [...]
Challenger bank PCF posts profit surge and adds new business June 5, 2019 AIM-listed UK bank PCF posted a 57 per cent profit surge as its lending portfolio continued to grow rapidly in the first half of the year. The specialist lender said profit rose to £10.1m in the six months to the end of March. Read more: Challenger banks struggle to compete with big five on cash [...]
Bank of England calls ‘last orders’ on Libor as regulators push 2021 transition June 5, 2019 The Bank of England has called “last orders” on the scandal-hit Libor interest rates as regulators push for financial institutions to transition away from the benchmark by 2021. Deputy governor Dave Ramsden said good progress was being made and that getting on with the switch to alternative benchmark Sterling Overnight Index Average (Sonia) could be [...]