Royal Bank of Scotland lines up female interim chief financial officer for permanent role, reports December 18, 2018 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reportedly is on the cusp of shaking up the male-dominated boardrooms of the country’s biggest banks by naming interim chief financial officer (CFO) Katie Murray as its permanent head of finance. The bank is waiting for approval by banking watchdog the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) before naming Murray as CFO, [...]
Malaysian criminal probe into Goldman Sachs extends across borders to units in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore December 18, 2018 Goldman Sachs units in the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong have been hit with criminal charges connected to a money laundering and corruption investigation in Malaysia, as the authorities target businesses outside the country’s borders. Malaysian authorities published a charge sheet yesterday naming London-based Goldman Sachs International, Goldman Sachs (Singapore) PTE and Hong-Kong based Goldman [...]
Banks could be banned from charging higher fees for unarranged overdrafts as part of crackdown on high cost credit sector December 18, 2018 The City watchdog has proposed radical changes to overdraft fees charged by banks as part of a crackdown on the high-cost credit sector. The Financial Conduct Authority wants to scrap fixed daily or monthly charges on overdrafts in favour of a single interest rate, it said today. Banks could also be banned from charging higher [...]
European banking watchdog tells lenders to stop keeping customers in the dark over Brexit December 17, 2018 The EU’s banking watchdog has hit out at lenders for not telling customers how they might be affected by Brexit. In a reproachful statement released this afternoon, the European Banking Authority (EBA) said it had found “little evidence of financial institutions communicating effectively to their customers on how they may be affected by the UK [...]
UK banks could be tested for climate change resilience from next year, according to Bank of England governor Mark Carney December 17, 2018 UK bank stress tests could include resilience to the impact of climate change from next year, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said. Carney said he was weighing up whether the risks and opportunities of climate change should included in the test, which is known as the exploratory scenario, the Financial Times reported. Banking stress [...]
Malaysia files criminal charges against Goldman Sachs and other bankers in 1MDB probe December 17, 2018 Malaysian authorities have filed criminal charges against investment bank Goldman Sachs in connection with a money laundering and corruption inquiry at the country's state investment fund 1MDB. Filed under Malaysia's securities laws, former Goldman bankers Tim Leissner and Roger Ng, former 1MDB employee Jasmine Loo and the fugitive financier known as Jho Low were also included [...]
UK banks taxed almost double the amount of the rest of the FTSE 100 December 17, 2018 UK banks pay nearly double the amount of tax compared to the rest of the FTSE 100, new data has revealed. The five biggest banks paid an effective tax rate – the rate at which a corporation’s profits are taxed – of 42 per cent last year, almost twice as much as the 23 per [...]
Could the UK be on the brink of a US-style class action explosion? December 16, 2018 The Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Tesco, Google and Mastercard. These are just a handful of the household names that have been targeted in group action lawsuits in the UK with billions of pounds at stake. The UK, unlike the US or Australia, does not have a long history of class action-style lawsuits, [...]
Investigation clears EBRD president after ‘director dossier’ claims December 14, 2018 The head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was cleared of wrongdoing yesterday, following member states’ claims that the lender inappropriately gathered information on some of their directors. The bank confirmed that an external investigation has exonerated EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti after board members representing some of the bank's 70 member governments [...]
Got $130m? Disgraced 1MDB Hollywood financier’s superyacht put up for sale December 14, 2018 If you've got a spare $130m (£103.1m) lying around, you could be the next owner of Equanimity: the luxury superyacht belonging to fugitive Malaysian financier and "tabloid party boy" Low Taek Jho. Also known as Jho Low, the still-at-large financier is wanted in connection with the alleged embezzlement of billions of dollars from Malaysian sovereign development [...]