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 [...]
Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio questioned by bank over alleged tryst trip August 10, 2016 Lloyds Banking Group's boss has faced some tricky questions from his own bank over reports he had a tryst while away on business. Antonio Horta-Osorio, who has been at the helm of the taxpayer-backed bank since 2011, is said to have met with alleged lover Dr Wendy Piatt, a former Tony Blair aide, while travelling in June to a [...]
Four reasons why you should think about switching your bank account August 10, 2016 Banks are going to offer customers more sophisticated digital products following an order from competition chiefs. Every high street bank alongside the only-online “challenger” banks will soon have to launch an app where customers can see all of their accounts in one place. It will also allow people to see better deals among competitor banks, so [...]
The CMA missed its opportunity to level the playing field for challengers and end the banking oligopoly August 9, 2016 To deal with a problem, first you need to recognise it. While yesterday’s final report from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on UK retail and SME banking identifies the problems of the market, it has fallen short when it comes to making recommendations that will address the underlying issues. The report makes several constructive suggestions [...]
Worldpay shrugs off Brexit concerns as bumper earnings send shares higher August 9, 2016 Worldpay shares have nudged last year's peak today after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and declared a maiden interim dividend of 0.65p per share. The UK's largest payments processor reported a rise in first-half underlying earnings and pre-tax profit. It follows a disappointing first full year for the firm as a listed company. For the six months to [...]
Banking bazooka? CMA report great for fintech, costly for banks August 9, 2016 The competition watchdog has today handed fintech startups a bazooka for their mission of disrupting banks, with new rules for making data more open to improve customer choice. The so-called big four – HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland – and other smaller high street banks will have to work together to create standards for sharing [...]