European development bank pulls plug on funding for coal mines December 12, 2018 The European bank which funds international development around the world will stop paying for coal projects in a bid to cut carbon emissions. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also announced it would stop funding oil exploration projects. It will only pay for oil development in exceptional circumstances where the investment would help reduce [...]
The City is braced for a hard Brexit – why aren’t MPs? December 11, 2018 Had things worked out differently we could have woken up this morning to news that MPs voted last night in favour of Theresa May's withdrawal agreement. The transition period was secured, talks would move on to the future trade deal and businesses would breath a mighty sigh of relief. Instead, we rise to find another [...]
Beat your demons: Barclays lets account holders block their worst spending habits December 11, 2018 Barclays has become the first high street bank to allow customers to “turn off” certain types of spending in a bid to give those with addiction better control over their money. Customers can now block payments to retailers including gambling websites, betting shops and pubs using a button in the bank's mobile app. Barclays developed [...]
Out with the old: Danske Bank sells £228m pensions business amid talks of money-laundering fines December 11, 2018 Under-fire Danske Bank has sold its Swedish pensions arm to a group of private equity firms, in what some analysts believe is an attempt to raise cash to pay any penalties from its money-laundering scandal. The bank, which is under investigation for payments routed through its Estonian branch, said it would sell Danica Pension to [...]
DEBATE: Do banks need to become fintechs in order to survive? December 10, 2018 Do banks need to become fintechs in order to survive? YES, says Lu Zurawski, consumer payments practice lead at ACI Worldwide. Big banks definitely need to find ways to become more like fintechs, which represent a new way of engaging with customers who increasingly expect modern, mobile-first and always-available services. These tech-savvy firms focus on customer-centric, informative [...]
Sabadell reportedly plans to sell TSB when it becomes profitable again December 7, 2018 Spanish lender Sabadell plans to eventually merge or sell its TSB unit once it has returned the bank to profitability, it is reported. Sabadell chairman Josep Oliu said options for the British bank, which was hit by a costly IT meltdown earlier this year, would be looked at in due course. “The aim is that TSB enters into a process [...]
UK scores top marks in anti-money laundering review December 7, 2018 The UK’s finance sector scored top marks in a review by a global anti-money laundering watchdog published today. However, due to its status as the largest financial services provider in the world, it still faces a “significant risk” of money laundering, the Paris-headquartered Financial Action Task Force said. While Britain has a “robust” regime to [...]
‘Big Short’ investor Steve Eisman bets against UK banks December 7, 2018 Investor Steve Eisman who is known for his prediction of the 2008 financial crisis has said he is betting against three UK banks. Eisman, who was played by actor Steve Carell in the film The Big Short, said he thinks the British market will go down because of Brexit. He said that he bet against [...]
Debate: Do we need more regulation to tackle late payments to SMEs? December 7, 2018 Do we need more regulation to tackle late payments to SMEs? Yes – Jordan Marshall is policy development manager at IPSE. SMEs represent 99.9 per cent of all private sector businesses. Included in this figure are 4.8m self-employed people – the UK’s smallest enterprises. A report from MPs this week exposed the shoddy practices of [...]
Bank of England slammed over secret Venezuelan gold summit December 6, 2018 The Bank of England (BoE) has come under fire following reports of a clandestine meeting with senior representatives of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. The BoE is due to meet high-ranking Venezuelan officials in London tomorrow to discuss the return of gold worth $550m stored in the bank’s vaults, according to sources. Today it emerged MP [...]