London fintech startup Jaja Finance picks up £5m with a boost from Celeres January 16, 2019 Credit card fintech startup Jaja Finance has today confirmed the final close of its £3.5m crowdfunding round, boosted by an additional £1.5m from Celeres Investments. The £5m intake adds to an earlier £4.4m raised in seed funding last year, backed by Blystad Group and Pollen Street Capital among others. More than 1,000 private investors took [...]
Santander cancels appointment of Orcel over compensation January 15, 2019 Banco Santander stunned the banking world this evening by announcing the reversal of its decision to appoint Andrea Orcel as its new chief executive because of the cost of compensating him for leaving his previous role. The bank had announced the high profile appointment of Orcel, former head of investment banking at UBS, in September. [...]
MPs fear FCA proposals on overdraft rules could end free banking January 15, 2019 The head of the UK’s financial watchdog told MPs this morning that he is “very alert” to the possibility that proposed rules to tackle charges for unplanned overdrafts could raise the cost of planned consumer borrowing. MPs raised concerns that changes to overdraft rules could negatively impact the availability of free banking as banks would [...]
JP Morgan disappoints as Wall Street’s dire December claims another scalp January 15, 2019 US bank JP Morgan saw its bond trading revenue plunge 18 per cent at the end of last year as Wall Street’s dire December claimed another major scalp. The bank – a bellwether for the financial industry – said “challenging market conditions” caused revenue declines in credit trading, rates and commodities, as it published results [...]
Lender Provident Financial shares tumble on profit warning January 15, 2019 Provident Financial’s share price plunged more than 20 per cent in early morning trading after the sub-prime lender issued a profit warning. The FTSE 250 firm led the market fallers today after saying that it expects earnings for 2018 to be at the lower end of expectations, blaming modestly higher payment arrangements at its credit [...]
Atom Bank poised to appoint Citi for potential sale to Spanish bank January 14, 2019 Digital lender Atom Bank is in talks with advisers over a potential instruction that could lead to its takeover by Spanish banking behemoth BBVA. According to Sky News, the Durham-based bank is in discussions with Citi about a role advising the board of the business on its future options. Last year Atom Bank raised nearly [...]
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 [...]