Santander cuts 140 branches – putting 1,270 jobs at risk January 23, 2019 A total of 1,270 jobs are at risk after Santander announced plans to close 140 branches across the UK today. The bank said it expects to redeploy around a third of the employees affected within the business. A shift in customer behaviour is to blame for the closures, the lender said, after research found that [...]
Metro Bank shares plummet as lender misses profit expectations January 23, 2019 Shares in Metro Bank dropped to their lowest point ever this morning as the lender warned that profits had “softened” in the final quarter of last year. Underlying profits reached £50m in 2018, the banks said, up 138 per cent from the year before. Read more: Metro Bank profits treble as UK's newest high street bank [...]
AJ Bell assets fall in first post-IPO market update January 23, 2019 AJ Bell today revealed that assets fell in the months leading up to its blockbuster December float. Read more: AJ Bell prepares for London IPO Underlying platform inflows grew 20 per cent to £1.2bn in the three months to the end of December compared to the same period in 2017, AJ Bell said today in [...]
Davos: Citigroup CEO admits London focus will wane after Brexit January 22, 2019 Citigroup has warned that it will do less work in London after Brexit. Speaking at Davos today, chief executive Michael Corbat warned that the firm will move jobs to the EU in preparations for Brexit, adding that “the outcome is that we will be doing less there [London]”. Read more: Citigroup appoints new investment bank [...]
Mastercard slapped with €570m fine by EU antitrust watchdog over fee limits January 22, 2019 The European Commission has hit Mastercard with a €570.6m (£501.2m) fine for limiting the ability of banks to shop around for lower fee structures among member states. "By preventing merchants from shopping around for better conditions offered by banks in other member states, Mastercard's rules artificially raised the costs of card payments, harming consumers and [...]
Danske Bank faces shareholder action over money laundering scandal January 22, 2019 Danske Bank is facing shareholder action from investors seeking compensation over a €200bn (£175.6bn) money laundering scandal. IMF Litigation Funding Services, Njord Law and Quinn Emanuel allege that Denmark’s largest bank failed to disclose the scale of the crisis to investors, causing them to lose vast amounts of money. Read more: Danish minister says Danske Bank may [...]
This is the year for businesses to find their purpose in life January 22, 2019 One year ago, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink called on businesses to define their societal purpose, sending a message to the corporate world that working towards profit alone was no longer good enough. Last week, Fink’s push towards purpose was in the papers again, when a hacker concocted an elaborate hoax in the form of [...]
Why collaboration, not competition, will digitalise banking January 21, 2019 Across every sector, businesses are looking to technology to reduce costs and improve their products and services. But most big financial services firms simply aren’t set up to create, drive, and wield new tech innovation – certainly not to the degree that a startup can. Big companies are hampered by legacy IT systems and complex [...]
London fintech Marketinvoice lands £56m in funding from Barclays and Santander January 21, 2019 London-based fintech business lender Marketinvoice has today closed a £56m round made up of equity and debt funding, led by Barclays and Santander's venture arm Innoventures. The series B-stage equity funding, which amounted to £26m, also received significant participation from European venture capital firm Northzone, which has previously backed the likes of Spotify, Trustpilot and fellow fintech lender Zopa. [...]
Hacking Wall Street: Are tech unicorns about to disrupt stock market flotations? January 21, 2019 Tech companies have changed the way we chat, bank, travel and date. Are they about to disrupt capital markets too? “In [Silicon] Valley there’s always been that mentality: how do we hack Wall Street?” says Rob Kniaz, a founder of tech-focused venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures. Two weeks ago reports broke that Slack, the workplace [...]