This consulting firm has created an “editable” blockchain and people are puzzled September 20, 2016 Blockchain, heralded in part for keeping an immutable record of transactions, could soon become editable. Accenture has patented a prototype for making changes to it in "exceptional circumstances" to take into account errors recorded such as so-called fat finger moments, or, human error. “As we focus on new uses for blockchain technology beyond the realm of cryptocurrency, absolute immutability will become both [...]
Wells Fargo share price slides as chief exec gets a grilling from the Senate’s banking committee September 20, 2016 Wells Fargo's share price has started to slide as chief executive John Stumpf sits down for an uncomfortable chat with the US Senate's banking committee. The bank has come under fire in recent days after it was revealed its staff signed customers up for products without their consent. Earlier this month, Wells Fargo was hit with [...]
Bank of England’s Andrew Hauser: Don’t expect blockchain to revolutionise finance any time soon September 20, 2016 Much heralded blockchain technology will not create a revolutionary shake up in the financial sector anytime soon, a top Bank of England official has declared. The distributed ledger technology has a way to go to become to be as revolutionary as some are predicting, according to Andrew Hauser, the executive director of banking, payments and financial resilience [...]
Deutsche Bank share price dips as latest plans to reduce risk and bolster capital position revealed September 20, 2016 Shares in Deutsche Bank are trading down today after it was revealed the German giant was considering converting billions of dollars of corporate loans into marketable securities. If the deal goes through as planned, it will help the bank to boost its capital ratio as well as manage some of its risk. Although the plans have come to [...]
British business backer BBBI reports pre-tax profit of £40m as it gets behind 12,000 firms September 20, 2016 British Business Bank Investments (BBBI), the commercial arm of the government’s economic development lender, British Business Bank, today reports a pre-tax profit of £40m for the year to 31 March. BBBI, which invests in small business finance providers, will today also report annual income of £45.5m in the full year and a dividend of £32m to [...]
Why Stateside aggression is increasingly familiar to European investors September 20, 2016 An abundance of liquidity relative to opportunities has led to investors agreeing to lend to companies at relatively high leverages without the usual conditions that enable them to renegotiate terms when the businesses underperform. Almost all deals syndicated that are taking place in Europe this month are covenant-lite, which means that investors will be unable to [...]
Mobile lender Atom in £100m funding drive September 19, 2016 Mobile money lender Atom Bank is gearing up for a fresh £100m funding drive. The app-based bank is preparing to approach backers to shore up its balance sheet against early-stage losses and regulatory capital requirements. Atom began accepting deposits earlier this year and is planning to start mortgage lending in coming months. Read more: How nine challenger banks [...]
Moody’s says UK banks don’t need EU passporting rights September 19, 2016 Leaving the EU Single Market and losing passporting rights would be far from a disaster for the City of London, leading analysts at Moody's have found. The new research comes amid ongoing wrangling between the UK and Europe, between government ministers and across different industries all competing to put their views about what deal Theresa May should [...]
Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann claims London banks will consider Frankfurt after hard Brexit September 19, 2016 The head of the German Bundesbank has said Frankfurt will open its arms to any banks or businesses that decide to leave London in the wake of the EU referendum. Jens Weidmann also warned that if the UK leaves the EU's Single Market – the so-called "hard Brexit" option gaining traction in parts of the Conservative Party [...]
Eight years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, FutureBrand’s Tom Adams says that perceptions of banks’ brands are improving September 19, 2016 Eight years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, FutureBrand’s global head of strategy Tom Adams reflects on how the public perceives financial services organisations. In 2014, when his global brand consultancy first began polling professionals in 17 countries to see how they perceived the firms in PwC’s list of global top 100 companies by market capitalisation, [...]