Saving no longer as easy as 1, 2, 3: Santander chops interest rate on top account – and now Lloyds is considering a rate change too August 15, 2016 Santander has today confirmed it is slashing interest rates on its popular 1,2,3 account to 1.5 per cent, while Lloyds has revealed it is mulling its options. Santander's change in rate will be effective from 1 November, and it is also making some changes to the overdraft rates. In a statement issued this morning, the bank [...]
Never mind the Brexit: Meet JP Morgan’s “glass half-full” European chief August 14, 2016 JP Morgan Chase employees were left in little doubt about how damaging the UK’s Brexit vote could be. In early June, chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon spoke to staff in Bournemouth alongside now-former chancellor George Osborne and warned that a vote to leave the European Union could lead to as many as 4,000 job losses [...]
Bank of England considers easing challenger burdens August 14, 2016 The Bank of England is considering easing regulatory burdens on challenger banks, amid increasing pressure from the small lenders. Challengers are concerned about capital requirements imposed on them, which they say disadvantage them to bigger players and stop them from being able to offer loans and credits to small business. There was anger among the [...]
RBS is “too big” for the economy of an independent Scotland August 14, 2016 The bank formerly known as the Royal Bank of Scotland would be "too big" for the Scottish economy if the country were to become independent from the rest of the UK, its top boss has said. And that would prompt a move of its headquarters to the UK, despite the vote for Brexit. RBS boss [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland to ditch “RBS” in brand shake-up August 13, 2016 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will become a name of the past for the majority of people across the UK, its chief executive said yesterday. The bank is set to kill off the RBS retail brand for everywhere outside Scotland, using less-toxic local brand names instead. That will mean in England and Wales, all RBS [...]
Banks scramble to get rid of €100bn in junk loans August 11, 2016 European banks either sold or begun working on deals to dump more than €100bn of bad loans in the first half of the year. Research from Deloitte found EU lenders sold a total of €44bn in non-performing loans in the six months to end of June, with another €68bn of offloads in the pipeline. The [...]
Aldermore becomes the latest challenger bank to shrug off Brexit with 50 per cent boost to profits August 11, 2016 Aldermore has today reported a huge boost to its bottom line, while revealing it feels it can keep on smiling throughout the Brexit uncertainty. The figures The challenger bank reported profit before tax of £59m for the first half of 2016, up 50 per cent from the prior year's £40m. Meanwhile, underlying profit before tax increased to £63m, [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland wins strong demand for first post-Brexit CoCo offer August 11, 2016 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has raised an extra £2bn in emergency capital in the first round of fund raising for a UK lender since the EU referendum. The bank, which performed badly in the recent European Banking Authority (EBA) stress tests, has sold $2.65bn (£2bn) worth of "Contingent Convertible capital notes" – or CoCos – to build [...]
Cut Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio some slack: His “tryst” doesn’t make him worse at his job August 11, 2016 Not since Fred the Shred was at his most dastardly has a banking boss made the gossip pages of the tabloids. But this week Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio strolled into the headlines hand in-hand with Russell Group director general Dr Wendy Platt, after The Sun revealed an alleged tryst between the pair The paper’s report [...]
City watchdog shuts bond manipulation investigation into Lloyds senior trader August 10, 2016 The City watchdog has today shut down an investigation into possible bond manipulation by a Lloyds Banking Group trader. In late 2015, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched an investigation into whether Tony Gray, head of gilts trading at the bank, had rigged the UK government bond market but has now decided there is no case for [...]