Meet Masthaven: The latest challenger bank on the scene November 28, 2016 Masthaven has become the latest challenger bank on the scene, as it officially opens for business today. The bank was initially awarded its retail banking licence in April and has spent the time between then and now strengthening its team and developing its technology platform and product offering. At present, the challenger offers a flexible [...]
Barclays sells more of its non-core business, but not for as much as it might have hoped November 28, 2016 Barclays announced today it has dropped yet another of its non-core assets, this time its wealth and investment management business in Singapore and Hong Kong. Barclays completed the sale of the business, which serves high net worth and ultra high net worth clients, to the Bank of Singapore, the private banking subsidiary of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. The Bank of Singapore snapped [...]
Major banks’ shares fall as investors prepare for Bank of England stress tests November 28, 2016 Banks' shares were among the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 this morning as investors brace themselves for the Bank of England's stress test results later this week. At time of writing: Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland are down 2.1 per cent at 197.3p, Barclays is down 1 per cent at 213.3p, Lloyds Banking Group is [...]
Wife of jailed Libor trader vows they will move on with their lives after his request for appeal is rejected November 27, 2016 The wife of an ex-Barclays trader jailed for Libor-rigging offences has promised they will move forward with their lives after his request to appeal was turned down. Alex Pabon, along with fellow former Barclays bankers Jay Merchant and Jonathan Mathew, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud in July. City A.M. revealed in August the trio had applied to appeal their [...]
What you need to know about the Bank of England’s stress test on Wednesday November 27, 2016 Wednesday will be judgement day for lenders across the UK, as the Bank of England is due to release its most recent set of stress test results. The annual stress test is designed to measure the financial health of the UK's seven major lenders – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, the Royal Bank of [...]
Paying a dividend: Royal Bank of Scotland’s Irish subsidiary does what the UK group is still struggling to do November 25, 2016 Beleaguered lender Royal Bank of Scotland might not be able to make any money at a group level, but its Irish operations is raking in profits. In fact, Ulster Bank Ireland DAC (aka Ulster Bank) has made so much money, it said today it will pay a mammoth €1.5bn (£1.1bn) dividend to its loss-making UK parent. It [...]
There is a financial services-shaped hole in the government’s economic strategy November 24, 2016 Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” For anyone who works in the City, that seems a particularly pertinent quote right now. For Wednesday’s Autumn Statement – one of the biggest events in the economic policy calendar – [...]
EU pushes for banking rules to be brought in line with the rest of the world November 23, 2016 The European Commission has today unveiled a slew of potential reforms designed to keep the banking sector propped up in the event of an economic downturn and to bring the EU industry more in line with the rest of the world. Included among the proposals are tweaks to capital requirements to make them more sensitive to [...]
Things have changed but we’re doing well, says Paragon November 23, 2016 Challenger bank Paragon's shares jumped nearly four per cent in trading this morning after revealing increased profits over what the FTSE 250 lender called a "transitional year". The figures Underlying profit for the 12 months to 30 September rose by 9.1 per cent to £147m from £135m last year, while statutory profit before tax increased by 6.7 per cent to £143m. [...]
Goldman Sachs and Santander have left a major blockchain group November 22, 2016 Goldman Sachs and Santander have both exited one of tech's top blockchain consortiums which is backed by some of the world's biggest financial institutions. Both institutions have quit membership of the R3 group and will not be investing in its latest reported funding round. Santander did not comment on its decision to depart R3, however, it's understood it will [...]