RBS sells chunk of Charter One ahead of exit from US banking January 7, 2014 RBS QUIT retail banking in and around Chicago yesterday, selling 94 Charter One branches to US Bancorp. The British lender is planning a wider exit from the US, aiming to float its American bank Citizens, which includes Charter One, later this year. It bought into Charter One a decade ago, and is now partly reversing that [...]
Pawn shop H&T in the mood for consolidation January 7, 2014 PAWNBROKER H&T is still on the hunt to buy shops owned by faltering rival Albemarle & Bond despite announcing plans yesterday to close more of its own stores. The UK’s biggest pawnbroker has signed a non-disclosure agreement with Albemarle & Bond, with a view to buying the company after rival bidder Better Capital pulled out [...]
Barclays beefs up its board with appointment of former regulator January 7, 2014 BARCLAYS yesterday bulked up its board, hiring former Federal Reserve and Financial Services Authority regulator Stephen Thieke. He joined immediately as a non-executive director. Barclays has been keen to increase its knowledge and skills in regulation and compliance, a drive which included hiring ex-FSA chief executive Sir Hector Sants as compliance boss last year. However, Sants [...]
Size of average homes falling as housing crisis hits families January 7, 2014 A TYPICAL family home is now two square metres smaller than it was ten years ago, as the UK’s chronic housing supply shortage moves households into smaller premises. An average home for a family now has 96.8 square metres of floor space, in comparison to 98.8 square metres just one decade ago, while the number [...]
Samsung warns of falling profits in mobile group January 7, 2014 SAMSUNG Electronics’ fourth quarter profits are expected to be hit by falling smartphone shipments and the impact of a special employee bonus estimated to be worth nearly 1 trillion South Korean won (£570m). Yesterday the world’s largest smartphone maker said it expects to fall short of analysts’ expected earnings of 8.8 trillion won by 18 [...]
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft to join China’s £8bn gaming market January 7, 2014 CHINA has ended its 14-year ban on foreign-made games consoles which has blocked Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo from selling devices to the country’s 1.3bn citizens. While PlayStations and Xboxes have long been available in China illegally, PC gaming is the only legitimate form of gaming and has flourished due to the popularity of online gaming [...]
Brand Index: Britain must up its game to get a reputation made in China January 7, 2014 ON AN official trade mission to China last October, George Osborne declared that he was staggered by the progress and can-do attitude of the Chinese, and warned that Britain needs to “up our game” if we’re to compete. New research from YouGov in China shows this to be true, with perceptions of British-made products and [...]
Google’s Android software to ship on over 1bn devices in 2014 January 7, 2014 DEVICES shipped using Google’s Android operating system will number over a billion in 2014, according to research group Gartner. The number of new Android users is set soar 26 per cent to 1.1bn over the course of the year. Gartner forecasts that the strongest demand for devices will come from emerging markets. In contrast, Apple’s [...]
UK 4G growth is second fastest in the world as EE hits 2m users January 7, 2014 MOBILE giant EE yesterday said it had surpassed two million 4G users, just four months after exceeding a million users, doubling the company’s original target for 2013. EE’s current 4G sign up rate is now the second fastest in the world, behind South Korea. The mobile network also confirmed that 75 per cent of small [...]
Sony’s streaming game service January 7, 2014 Sony last night revealed PlayStation Now, a service that will bring streaming PlayStation games not only to PS4, but also PS3, PlayStation Vita, and even televisions, tablets, and smartphones. The service is due to roll out in the US this summer, but Sony did not disclose a date for the European launch. At the Consumer [...]