Funding Circle chief Lisa Jacobs: Lending through a crisis – and looking toward the US September 14, 2023 It’s not been a quiet few years for small business lenders. When covid struck in 2020, a host of non-banks found themselves thrust into the public consciousness alongside the big High Street lenders as small companies scrambled for a cash lifeline through lockdowns. The reception was a largely positive one; some even took on something [...]
Funding Circle slides to loss as weak economy and end of Covid loans hit lending September 7, 2023 Funding Circle swung to a loss in the first half of the year as a sluggish UK economy and the winding down of government-backed Covid loans continued to drag on the small business lender’s bottom line. The London-listed fintech posted a pre-tax loss of £16.6m in the six months to June, against a profit of [...]
Less than two per cent of £1bn lost to Covid fraud recovered in three years September 6, 2023 Ministers have only recovered around £20m of the more than £1bn lost to Covid fraud in the three years since the start of the pandemic.
Alison Rose: How the first woman to lead a major British bank ran Natwest July 26, 2023 Dame Alison – or just Ms Rose as she was at the time – made history in 2019 when she became the first woman to take the top job at one of the UK’s big four banks. She took over a bank from New Zealander Ross McEwan, which had stabilised after the financial crisis nearly [...]
British Business Bank chief Louis Taylor on risk: ‘Even if the worst happens, you learn’ July 20, 2023 For a man running a bank that has found itself at the centre of a fraud storm over the past two years, Louis Taylor talks warmly about the concept of risk. The state-owned British Business Bank he now runs shot to household-name status through the pandemic and enjoyed a moment in the sun as the [...]
Starling Bank: Five things that defined Anne Boden’s time at the top June 30, 2023 The chief and founder of digital lender Starling Bank Anne Boden will hand over the reins to her number two today as she steps back from the top job after nine years. Boden has undoubtedly blazed a trail in British banking. The Swansea native remains the only woman to have launched a bank in the [...]
Covid cash lost to fraud down by third because we’re ‘going after everybody’, Sunak claims May 3, 2023 Government cash lost to fraud and error via Covid-19 business and jobs support schemes has been reduced by a third thanks to “hundreds of criminal investigations”, Rishi Sunak has claimed. The prime minister defended the pandemic business loans and job support and vowed his government was “going after everybody” in a bid to reclaim the [...]
Covid loan fraud: More than 450 company directors disqualified in crackdown April 18, 2023 More than 450 company directors have been disqualified in a crackdown on covid fraud claims. The Insolvency Service announced that 459 of the 932 disqualifications overall for fraud were related to the coronavirus financial support scheme, introduced during the pandemic to help businesses in lockdown. This comes after the organisation published its monthly figures for [...]
Mark Kleinman: This licence to print money may soon run out of road April 6, 2023 How’s that licence to print money going? Not so well if you’re a long-standing investor in De La Rue, the authentication and currency specialist which has managed to squander a market-leading position and hundreds of millions of pounds in shareholder value. Oberthur Technologies, its French-based peer, tabled an indicative offer in 2010 worth 905p-a-share, or [...]
How crisis has become the norm for the UK’s small businesses, Tide chief February 9, 2023 Economic crises have rocked the UK’s smaller firms over the past three years – now they’re becoming par for the course, boss of small business banking firm Tide tells City.A.M.’s Charlie Conchie Small business banking has played a strangely starring role in the national drama of the past three years. When Covid first began to [...]