UK immigration: British Bankers Association (BBA) says plans to tighten immigration rules would undermine the City March 10, 2016 Plans to tighten immigration rules and impose a new tax for employing non-EU migrant workers would damage the City, a leading business group is warning today. Less than one week before chancellor George Osborne delivers his 2016 Budget, the British Bankers Association (BBA) said that plans to raise the minimum annual salary requirements for skilled [...]
Meet steely Neelie Kroes, the queen of UK banks November 4, 2009 Brussels competition chief Neelie Kroes yesterday unveiled the most radical shake-up of UK retail banking in living memory, ordering Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group to sell off assets and authorising an extra £40bn injection of taxpayer money into the banks. The extra capital from the Treasury only served to stoke the anger [...]
British banks given access to Vietnam September 10, 2008 HSBC and Standard Chartered have become the first foreign banks to be given permission to set up wholly owned subsidiaries in Communist Vietnam, the country’s state bank said yesterday. The two companies will be allowed to operate as commercial banks for a period of 99 years, according to a statement from the State Bank of [...]
Nationwide merger will suit all sides September 8, 2008 Nationwide’s merger with The Derbyshire Building Society and The Cheshire Building Society, which was confirmed yesterday, will see it stretch its lead at the top of the list of UK mortgage lenders. The tie-up will hand the building society an extra 95 branches to add to the 900 retail locations it already operates, reinforcing its [...]
Lehman talks continue amid board revamp September 8, 2008 US investment bank Lehman Brothers’ fundraising efforts could take a new twist this week, as talks with Korea Development Bank (KDB) over a $6bn investment look to have slowed. Chief executive officer Dick Fuld has drafted a blueprint for dividing the group into a “good bank” and a “bad bank”, by hiving off the bank’s [...]
Affluent women boosting growth in private banking September 1, 2008 NatWest will today reveal that there is a new profile of private banking customers in Britain, announcing an increase in young, affluent female customers. NatWest Private Banking’s customer demographic has evolved significantly over the past five years. Customers are now younger, with 87,344 18 to 30 year olds owning private banking accounts. Private banking is [...]
Lehman Bros locked in new equity talks September 1, 2008 Lehman Brothers, the troubled Wall Street investment bank, was holding intensive talks this weekend over a much-needed injection of billions of dollars in new equity capital. Korea Development Bank (KDB), the South Korean government-backed institution, which last week appeared to have lost its appetite for Lehman, is thought to have returned to the table to [...]
Allianz sells Dresdner in £8bn deal September 1, 2008 German insurance giant Allianz last night agreed to sell its beleaguered banking arm Dresdner to rival Commerzbank in a deal worth €9.8bn (£7.9bn) – a tie up that will lead to at least 1,000 job losses in the City. In what will be the biggest German banking merger in nearly a decade, Commerzbank will buy [...]
RBS rings the changes with new directors August 28, 2008 Royal Bank of Scotland announced the appointment of three non-executive directors yesterday, in a move that will intensify rumours that CEO Sir Fred Goodwin and chairman Sir Tom McKillop will soon depart the troubled bank. Stephen Hester, Arthur Ryan and John McFarlane will join the board from the beginning of October. Of the three, Hester, [...]
Private data sold on eBay, admit banks August 27, 2008 Account holders’ personal details have been found on a computer sold on eBay, banks said yesterday, adding to growing fears over data security. Details of more than a million customers of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), American Express and NatWest were found on the computer sold for £35 on the auction and shopping website. RBS [...]