Royal Bank of Scotland to slash 200 UK jobs and shut branches May 12, 2016 Royal Bank of Scotland is planning to slash around 200 jobs from its retail unit, in the latest round of cuts to the lender's workforce as part of a wider restructuring of the business. The planned job losses, which were reported by Reuters, mean that RBS will have axed more than one in 10 positions at its [...]
Barclays rules out Android Pay, going it alone with own mobile pay app May 12, 2016 Barclays is going it alone when it comes to mobile pay, rolling out its own contactless payment app on Android to all its customers, eschewing Google's own soon to launch Android Pay service. The bank's customers will be able to pay with just a swipe of their debit card from June with Barclays' Contactless Mobile [...]
Worldpay set to team up with accountancy software firms May 11, 2016 Payments processor Worldpay is set to team up with some of the UK’s largest accountancy software firms as it continues to move towards serving small and medium-sized businesses. Worldpay yesterday unveiled a tablet-based till to further its push into the SME market and is in talks with accountancy software companies over potential tie-ups that would [...]
Former Barclays banker pleaded guilty to Libor-rigging offence May 11, 2016 A former Barclays banker pleaded guilty to offences related to Libor-rigging around 19 months ago, fraud squad prosecutors said in court today. Peter Johnson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud in October 2014 after charges were brought against him earlier that year, but a reporting restriction preventing him from being named was not lifted until [...]
Confident challenger OneSavings Bank reveals net loans and advances growth May 11, 2016 OneSavings Bank revealed today that its net loans and advances had grown in a trading statement ahead of its AGM, with its chief executive noting that the challenger bank remained "confident" for the year ahead. The bank, which launched in 2011, reported that net loans and advances grew by £460m in its first quarter of the year, [...]
Visa Europe records three billion contactless payments over the last 12 months May 10, 2016 Card company Visa has recorded three billion contactless transactions in Europe over the past year. In April alone, European consumers used their cards 360m times, clocking in at almost 140 transactions per second. Contactless now accounts for one in every five Visa card payments in Europe, up from one in 60 in 2013. In the [...]
Credit Suisse posts second quarterly loss and warns over tough market conditions May 10, 2016 Credit Suisse posted its second quarterly loss today, as it warned tough market conditions could persist until at least the second quarter. The figures Credit Suisse reported a post-tax loss of 302m Swiss francs (£215m) in the first three months of 2016, compared to a profit of 1.1bn francs during the same period last year. But this was narrower than the average forecast [...]
Operation Tabernula verdict: Two found guilty, three acquitted in insider trading case May 9, 2016 An ex-City banker and a former Topshop finance director were found guilty yesterday evening following a trial that is widely considered to be the most significant insider trading case in British history. Accountant Andrew Hind and former Deutsche Bank director Martyn Dodgson were convicted of conspiring to insider deal between November 2006 and March 2010, by a majority verdict. [...]
Panama Papers: Database of names connected to offshore accounts revealed in leaked information from Mossack Fonseca goes live May 9, 2016 A database containing over 300,000 names connected with offshore accounts has gone live on the internet this evening. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which initially reported on the Panama Papers in April, has launched a searchable database, accessible here. Users can search for specific names, or see lists of the companies and individuals [...]
UK banks set for US meeting to iron out Iran trade concerns May 9, 2016 Some of the biggest banks in the UK have been invited to meet US secretary of state John Kerry to discuss last year's lifting of economic sanctions on Iran. The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has circulated a note to members asking them to send senior representatives to a meeting with Kerry later this week. The [...]