Societe Generale announces more cost-cutting measures, focusing on its global banking and investor solutions offering May 4, 2016 Societe Generale has revealed further plans to cut costs in its quarterly results today, focusing this time on its global banking and investor solutions unit. The new plans seek to slash €220m (£173.8m) from costs by the end of 2017, in an effort to offset rising taxes and generate more funds for investments. The bank has been [...]
After a difficult first quarter for UK-based banks, is the outlook finally beginning to brighten? May 4, 2016 Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Yes. There is no doubt things are tough in the banking industry. But while performance in the first quarter was poor, it was generally ahead of expectations, which serves to underline the level of pessimism surrounding the sector. Progress has been slow since the financial crisis, and there [...]
Britain’s challenger banks had a bumper 2015 – but now they’re facing the challenges of scale May 4, 2016 Amid the misery and bad news associated with UK banks since the crisis, one of the positive rays of light has been the challenger banks. They have grown quickly, with several listing last year as the sector continues to attract both customer and investor interest. The challengers have also long been feted by politicians as [...]
Challenging market conditions cause HSBC profits dip, but it could have been worse May 3, 2016 Banking giant HSBC has today revealed that its profits had slipped in its first quarter of 2016, kicking off the start of a week of earning announcements from notable names. Shares in the company were trading down 0.9 per cent at 448.4p shortly before 9:30am London time. The figures The bank announced an adjusted profit before tax [...]
Why this boutique investment bank sees positives no matter which way the EU referendum goes May 2, 2016 It's difficult to find many investment banks feeling cheery about 2016. Global first-quarter revenues dropped to their lowest levels since 2009. Banking giants have reported double-digital percentage profit falls. And thousands of jobs have been lost. But Zeus Capital, a boutique investment bank founded in 2002, offers a success story. Albeit while operating on a [...]
Italy’s banking crisis deepens as failed capital offering sends stocks plunging across the industry May 2, 2016 The Italian banking sector took yet another blow over the weekend as one of its lenders failed to raise extra capital from shareholders causing stocks to plunge on Monday morning. Private sector investors agreed to buy just 7.7 per cent of the €1.5bn (£1.18bn) capital offering from Banca Popolare di Vicenza, which had been told by the European Central [...]
Credit Suisse just waved away the shareholder spring – but investors are still angry April 29, 2016 It was the best of times, it was the wurst of times at Credit Suisse's annual general meeting (AGM), as shareholders waved through controversial pay deals for its top team despite protests – and comfort ate frankfurters. At a meeting at which security was called as an angry shareholder disrupted proceedings, votes on directors' and executives' pay [...]
Bank of England warns UK’s largest lenders they will pay the price for ending “too big to fail” April 29, 2016 The Bank of England has told the UK's largest lenders that ending the era of "too big to fail" will make it more expensive for them to do business. There will "inevitably be higher costs" for banks as a result of the new regulatory requirements being placed upon them, Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial [...]
Credit Suisse warns shareholders to brace themselves for a bumpy 2016 April 29, 2016 The chief executive of Credit Suisse has said the bank’s performance has been “encouraging” after it posted a pre-tax loss of 2.4bn swiss francs (£1.6bn) in 2015, but warned that 2016 will be a “challenging" year. Tidjane Thiam, who moved to Credit Suisse last year, told shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) today that he expects [...]
Barclays thanks its shareholders for their patience and apologises for any inconvenience this turnaround period may have caused April 28, 2016 Barclays has today thanked its shareholders for being patient as the bank undergoes a turnaround period. In a statement ahead of the bank's AGM, chairman John McFarlane acknowledged that the last few years had been an "extremely difficult time for shareholders", and accepted that decision to slash the dividends for 2016 and 2017 last month would have hardly [...]