Barclays, Ruby Wax and mental health: How the banking giant is tackling stress in the City May 16, 2019 Square Mile careers are stereotypically fuelled by mantras such as "work-hard, play-hard", achieving "inbox zero", "surviving the rat race". All are excuses for raising your tolerance to stress. As a result the career pathways of the City are often littered with burned-out workers. Read more: Wellbeing should be top of the business agenda Unsurprising, stress [...]
Capital markets software firm OpenFin backed by Wells Fargo and Barclays in $17m funding round May 16, 2019 Capital markets software provider OpenFin has raised $17m (£13.2m) after being backed by Wells Fargo, Barclays and JP Morgan. OpenFin, the operating system (OS) for finance, provides banks, asset managers and hedge funds with financial desktop systems and access to their own app store. Read more: The financial services sector needs a shot of confidence [...]
Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland among five banks hit with €1bn fine for forex rigging May 16, 2019 The EU Commission has fined five banks €1.07bn (£940m) for rigging foreign exchange markets for 11 currencies, it announced today. Competition regulators fined Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Citigroup, JP Morgan and MUFG Bank, while UBS was not fined as it revealed the existence of the rigging to the regulator. In the first [...]
Investec overcomes weak South African economy and Brexit to post profit rise May 16, 2019 Banking giant Investec battled weak economic growth in its two core markets South Africa and the UK to post a 9.4 per cent full-year profit rise. The South African financial services group said it delivered a “sound” performance against a challenging operating environment, in its results for the year ending 31 March. Read more: Investec [...]
Gender agenda: Time for the finance world to up its game May 16, 2019 Next month will be one year since the Treasury Committee published its report on Women in Finance. But has anything happened over this period to provide a ripple of hope for change? To set the scene, back in 2015 the government appointed Jayne-Anne Gadhia to lead a review on women in financial services. In response [...]
Lloyds Bank unveils quarterly dividends payments amid pension pay row May 16, 2019 Lloyds Bank has announced plans to pay dividends quarterly from next year ahead of a potential shareholder revolt at today’s AGM. The bank said the move, beginning in the first quarter of 2020, would allow its 2.4 million shareholders to be paid more regularly and efficiently. Read more: Lloyds Banking Group: Q1 results analysis The [...]
Non-Standard Finance pushes forward with £1.3bn hostile takeover of Provident May 15, 2019 Sub prime lender Non-Standard Finance has dropped the number of acceptances needed to push forward with its £1.3bn hostile takeover of rival firm Provident Financial. NSF said in a statement that its offer was now unconditional in terms of acceptances by investors, with 5 June the last date on which the takeover may be declared [...]
EU officials mulling post-Brexit financial reforms May 15, 2019 European officials have reportedly drawn up draft plans for a major raft of financial regulations post-Brexit. Read more: Brexit party dominates EU election vote poll as Tories lag behind According to Reuters, the European Commission has composed a 12-page document setting out the body’s plans to speed up banking measures in what looks set to [...]
Specialist lenders One Savings Bank and Charter Court both boost loan books ahead of merger May 15, 2019 Challenger banks One Savings Bank and Charter Court have both reported loan book growth ahead of their proposed merger. One Savings Bank reported five per cent loan book growth to £9.4bn in the first quarter of the year, due to strong commercial and residential lending. Read more: One Savings Bank and Charter Court confirm £1.6bn [...]
Bank of England warned prosecutors against charging Barclays over controversial Qatar payments May 15, 2019 The Bank of England warned fraud prosecutors against charging Barclays over Qatar payments made at the height of the financial crisis, it has emerged. The Bank’s top regulator Sam Woods told the Serious Fraud Office in 2017 that criminal charges could pose a threat to Barclays’ safety and soundness, the Financial Times reported. Woods, [...]