Two heads are better than one: Goldman Sachs announces two new presidents to replace Cohn December 14, 2016 Goldman Sachs announced today it was promoting two long-serving staff members to the role of president and operating co-chiefs to replace Gary Cohn. David Solomon, currently co-head of the investment banking division, and Harvey Schwartz, currently finance chief, will fill the gap left by Cohn, who is off to join President-elect Donald Trump as director of the National [...]
It’s not easy being green: Mark Carney welcomes new recommendations for environmental disclosures from firms December 14, 2016 Mark Carney has today welcomed new guidelines for companies to disclose what impact their business is having on climate change in a bid to help investors make more environmentally informed decisions. Carney, who was speaking as the chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), hailed the recommendations from the FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, which [...]
Shares slide as Moody’s downgrades its outlook on Italian banks December 14, 2016 An index of Italian banking stocks recovered slightly following a slide in early trading, after one of the world's largest ratings agencies downgraded its outlook on the country's largest lenders. The FTSE Italia All-Share Banks index fell as much as 1.5 per cent in early trading, before just managing to turn positive later in the morning, after [...]
Wells Fargo growth to be capped after failing key contagion test by US regulators December 14, 2016 US banking giant Wells Fargo has been slapped with restrictions on growing its business by US authorities after failing a key "living will" test. Regulators announced overnight the San Francisco bank had failed the test for the second time this year. The living will rules are supposed to satisfy authorities contingency plans are in place for a controlled wind-down [...]
Challenger banks concerned Brexit has put creating a more even playing field on the backburner December 13, 2016 The UK's smaller lenders are concerned the government is delaying levelling the playing field for banking as key figures are too tied up navigating Brexit. Shortly after the Brexit vote, a number of challenger chief executives wrote to the influential Treasury Select Committee to ask them to push for creating a fairer market for lenders. This [...]
Unicredit to slash 14,000 jobs as part of mammoth restructuring of Italy’s largest bank December 13, 2016 Italy's largest lender is to cull 14,000 jobs by 2019 as part of a huge turnaround plan. Announcing the cuts alongside a €13bn (£10.9bn) equity raise and flogging €17.7bn on non-core assets, Unicredit said the job cuts would save the firm €1.1bn. Read more: Unicredit pushes the button on Italy's largest ever rights issue Chief exec [...]
Unicredit’s international lenders commit to €13bn rights issue, as bank also ditches €17.7bn of non-core loans December 13, 2016 Italy's largest ever rights issue was announced this morning by Unicredit, the country's biggest bank. The lender pushed the button on a €13bn (£10.9bn) rights issue, in a balance sheet restructuring Unicredit hopes will pave the way for dividend payouts to recommence by 2019. A raft of international banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, and [...]
Lloyds Bank share sale raises further £0.5bn to repay taxpayer December 13, 2016 The government has sold off another slug of its shares in Lloyds Bank, meaning the state now has an interest of less than seven per cent. More than £17.5bn has been recovered of the £20.3bn forked out by the taxpayer, the Treasury said this morning. The sale follows the previous auction in November that took recoveries to [...]
Clamour for a quick-fire Brexit will grow if Trump abolishes Dodd-Frank December 13, 2016 Worryingly the spirit of the age is to characterise diplomatic relations as some sort of zero-sum game. As a consequence the UK urgently needs to avoid the temptation of pitching our national interest against global goals as we extricate ourselves from the EU. Ongoing harmony and goodwill between the UK and the remaining EU 27 will [...]
Barclays says au revoir to French retail division in latest non-core asset sale December 12, 2016 Barclays has today agreed to sell its French retail business, marking the bank's final departure from retail operations in continental Europe. The lender has agreed to sell the 74 retail branches, life insurance business, wealth and investment management arm, and brokerage operations in France to private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners. No price was disclosed for the deal, but Barclays noted [...]