Emma, the “banking app for millennials”, gets FCA approval and announces it will integrate Monzo and Revolut January 12, 2018 London-based Emma Technologies, which calls itself the "banking app for millennials", has today won approval from the City watchdog to provide payment services. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) gave the nod to the mobile-only app just over a month after it launched its beta service, helping consumers avoid overdrafts, find and cancel subscriptions and track [...]
Credit Suisse is shuttering one of its Canary Wharf offices January 5, 2018 Credit Suisse is to pull out of one of its Canary Wharf offices as it ramps up a cost-cutting exercise and culls thousands of jobs. The Swiss banking giant is consolidating its London footprint and plans to reduce headcount in the UK capital to 5,000 by the end of the year. The rationalisation measures are [...]
Deutsche Bank minimum capital requirements increased by European Central Bank January 4, 2018 The European Central Bank (ECB) has forced Deutsche Bank to up its capital holdings for 2018 slightly above the average for European lenders. Deutsche Bank must now maintain a common equity tier one (CET1) ratio of 10.65 per cent during 2018, up from the 9.52 per cent requirement in 2017, it announced today on its [...]
RBS nets £150m in sale of Lombard asset finance unit to Investec and Shawbrook January 3, 2018 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold the offshore operations of its asset finance lender Lombard to Investec and Shawbrook. RBS will net around £150m from selling off its Channel Islands operations of the lender, which was founded in 1861. Investec and Shawbrook will split the Jersey and Guernsey assets division between them, although the [...]
Ex-Barclays trader to pay almost £300,000 for Libor fixing December 19, 2017 A former Barclays trader who was jailed for his role in the rigging of the Libor bank rate must pay almost £300,000 in earnings deemed to be proceeds from the crime. Jay Merchant, who is currently serving five-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty in July last year, must pay £275,890 in profits along [...]
Five UK banks given Open Banking deadline extension by CMA December 19, 2017 Five UK banks have been given more time by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to comply with Open Banking regulations. Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC, Santander and Bank of Ireland appealed to the CMA for a delay to the January deadline. Open Banking is a new digital standard that aims to give [...]
The UK is still the world’s top financial services exporter generating more than its next two competitors combined December 15, 2017 The UK has managed to retain the title of the world's biggest financial services exporter by a country mile, new data from TheCityUK has revealed. Last year the tiny island netted a total trade surplus from financial and related professional services of $93.6bn (£69bn) – more than the US and Switzerland, its next biggest competitors, [...]
A financial crisis in 2018? The danger signs are starting to emerge December 15, 2017 It is 10 years since the last financial crisis, and it has taken that long for normality to return. For the first time since the crisis, major economies are expanding together. Unemployment rates in the US and UK economies have halved. However, productivity and investment growth has been on a declining trend in major economies. [...]
Bank spending on consultants jumps as fintech challenge and regulation keep lenders on their toes November 27, 2017 Banks across the world upped their spending on consultants by 8.4 per cent last year as they tried to navigate changing regulation and fight off the challenge from more nimble, newer competitors. Globally banks spent $13.6bn (£10.2bn) on consultants, a rise from the $12.5bn spent during the year before, according to data from Source Global [...]
Challenger bank OakNorth hits unicorn status as it grabs £154m to take its fintech global October 12, 2017 Money seems to be growing on the tree for OakNorth, a challenger bank which has just raised another £154m to take its proposition global. The business, which specialises in providing smaller loans to UK businesses, secured investment from Singapore's Clermont Group, Martin Hughes' asset management firm Toscafund and New York's Coltrane who have together bought [...]