Santander’s using blockchain right now May 26, 2016 Santander is the latest bank to experiment with blockchain technology, applying it to international payments with the promise of making the process quicker. It claims to be the first bank in the UK to use blockchain in this way, trialling it in an iPhone app used by staff that reduces the time it takes to transfer cash by [...]
Ex-Barclays boss Rich Ricci: Fintech will eat banks’ lunch May 26, 2016 Rich Ricci, the former head of Barclays investment banking and right-hand man of Bob Diamond, has warned that fintech startups will snatch market share from established financial institutions and change the landscape of banking. Efforts of big banks to innovate will continue to be thwarted by their archaic technology as they face increasing competition from [...]
PPI still tops the list of most complained about financial products May 26, 2016 Consumers are still feeling the effects of one of banking's biggest scandals, with complaints about Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) still topping the list of woes heard by the Financial Ombudsman Service. A report released today by the Ombudsman revealed that it is still receiving up to 4,000 PPI cases each week and that half of all the [...]
HSBC to appoint new boardroom pay chief as current chair Sam Laidlaw set to quit May 25, 2016 HSBC is set to appoint a new boss for its boardroom pay committee as current chair Sam Laidlaw is set to step down from the bank's board as early as next year. Laidlaw, the former boss of Centrica, took over as chair of the bank's remuneration committee from former Rolls Royce chairman Sir Simon Robertson last [...]
No, P2P lenders aren’t going to topple banks – but we don’t want to May 25, 2016 Peer-to-peer lending was born a decade ago and has offered an alternative and often more accessible route to funding for thousands of small and medium sized businesses. The sector’s popularity has exploded in recent years, leading many, including a newly published report from Deloitte, to assume that platforms now have the established banking sector in [...]
Surge in buy-to-let loans dries up pipeline for lender Paragon May 24, 2016 Specialist buy-to-let mortgage lender Paragon has recorded a 84.6 per cent increase in loans in the first six months of 2016, to £823.6m. “We saw a surge in applications from people trying to beat the stamp duty hike and as a result expect the second half to be weaker than usual,” chief executive Nigel Terrington told [...]
Bank customers missing out on financial advice as mobile channel fails to drive engagement May 24, 2016 Banks are failing to provide customers with enough financial advice, a new survey has shown. The second annual Performance Against Customer Expectations (PACE) index from banking software firm FIS has revealed 82 per cent of UK banking customers receive no financial advice as the fast growing mobile channel struggles to offer the same level of engagement [...]
UniCredit CEO Federico Ghizzoni resigns amid shake-up of Italy’s biggest bank May 24, 2016 UniCredit chief executive Federico Ghizzoni resigned today after admitting the bank needs a new boss. Ghizzoni, who became CEO in 2010, came under pressure to resign after facing fierce shareholder discontent over the bank's falling share price and low profitability. Last week, shareholders accounting for 15 per cent of the bank approached the bank's chairman Giuseppe Vita to take measures to replace [...]
The bosses of eight challenger banks have slammed the CMA for failing to push for change on capital requirements May 24, 2016 Chief executives from eight challenger banks have slammed the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for failing to look at the capital requirements on small lenders. The CMA's report into the retail banking sector, published last week, called on banks to set maximum monthly charges for unauthorised overdrafts and to ease the process of switching current [...]
Investment banks endure worst first quarter since financial crisis May 24, 2016 The world's 12 largest investment banks endured their slowest start since the financial crisis, in what's typically their most lucrative period. Their revenue fell 25 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago as a wave of volatility rippled through financial markets, according to research by industry analytics firm Coalition. European bank shares hit multi-year lows [...]