Are Britain’s banks close-minded to Open Banking? January 14, 2019 Lauded as the start of a new revolution in banking, Open Banking was expected to take the financial world by storm when it was introduced almost a year ago to the day. The set of new rules require that the big banks allow their customers to share their own transaction data with third parties. Specifically designed to open [...]
US bank Citi reports revenue fall after Wall Street’s dreadful December hits fixed income trading January 14, 2019 US bank Citi has reported a surprise fall in revenue as Wall Street’s volatile December slashed income on its bond trading division by 21 per cent. The third-largest US bank said revenues fell two per cent to $17.1bn (£13.3bn) in the three months to December, below expectations of $17.6bn. Read more: Wall Street shares plummet after [...]
DEBATE: As Open Banking turns one year old, has it been a success? January 14, 2019 As Open Banking turns one year old, has it been a success? Didier Baclin, chief innovation officer at Zopa, says YES. A year on, Open Banking has already helped many people enjoy smoother experiences with certain financial providers, by enabling them to securely share their data through the open application programming interfaces. The initiative is about [...]
Leading MP slams Lloyds Banking Group’s overdraft fee changes January 13, 2019 An influential MP has slammed Lloyds Banking Group for trying to “game the system” with its new overdraft fees. Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee, said Lloyds’ upcoming overdraft changes would increase fees for the majority of customers and went against the spirit of recent recommendations from [...]
Blackrock announces plans to cut 500 jobs as financial firms come under increasing pressure January 11, 2019 Blackrock is set to cut about three per cent of its 14,900 global workforce, or about 500 employees, as it restructures amid challenging industry conditions. The world's biggest investment group is still profitable on a margin of more than 40 per cent, but suffered a drop in share price of 24 per cent last year [...]
UK banks ‘robust’ enough to cope with no-deal Brexit, S&P Global says January 10, 2019 The UK’s major banks are robust enough to cope with a no-deal Brexit but the sector’s outlook for 2019 will hinge on Britain’s exit from the EU, S&P Global Ratings has said. The financial services firm issued a “broadly stable” rating on the UK banking system but said that view was based on an orderly [...]
Revolut rival digital bank N26 lands $300m funding round, becoming Europe’s most valuable fintech startup January 10, 2019 Digital banking startup N26 has closed the biggest funding round in European fintech in recent years, valuing the Monzo and Revolut challenger at $2.7bn (£2.1bn). The Berlin-based fintech, which offers a current account and debit card through its mobile banking app, has raised $300m in a series D round led by US venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners. [...]
EU banking watchdog calls for fresh cryptoassets regulation January 10, 2019 New rules may be needed to stop existing regulation on cryptocurrencies and digital assets from getting too diverse across the European Union, the bloc's banking watchdog said yesterday. Cryptoassets such as bitcoin, ether and tokens created in initial coin offerings (ICOs) typically fall outside of the scope of EU financial legislation, which makes it hard to [...]
Digital finance technology is wonderful, but we must design it with consumers’ best interests at heart January 10, 2019 Every morning, I browse my phone as I commute to work. I check my emails, the news, Twitter, and increasingly I open my various finance apps. I recently logged into my investment platform app and made a new investment – £1,000 in a startup Swedish retailer. Once the money was invested, I was applauded with [...]
Mifid II launched one year ago and financial brokers are embracing the opportunity January 10, 2019 A year ago, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, commonly referred to as Mifid II, came into force. Arguably the most ambitious and wide-sweeping regulatory reform of the financial services industry in the last decade, it was touted as the death knell of sell-side equity research. Mifid II’s aim was to enhance transparency and [...]