Co-operative Bank to speed up toxic loans sell off after failing Bank of England stress tests December 16, 2014 The Co-operative Bank was the only lender to fail the Bank of England’s stress tests yesterday. As a result, it is accelerating its plan to sell off or run down a £6.6bn book of bad loans from the pre-crash era. Eight high street institutions’ finances were tested to see how they would cope with a hypothetical [...]
Mark Carney’s Bank of England stress tests lived up to their name December 16, 2014 The Bank of England certainly knows how to conduct a stress test. It even managed to give the City’s hacks a stress test of their own at the crack of dawn yesterday. The press briefing began at the impolite hour of 5am and was punctuated by a power cut and subsequent change of venue. Having [...]
Co-op fails Bank of England stress test, RBS and Lloyds at risk December 16, 2014 The Co-operative Bank has failed the Bank of England’s (BoE) stringent new stress test, while Lloyds and RBS would be at risk in a new economic crisis. The prudential regulation authority (PRA) tested seven banks and building society Nationwide to see how they would handle a financial meltdown of epic proportions. While Lloyds, Standard Chartered, [...]
Bank of England stress test results: Lenders braced to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on IT improvements December 15, 2014 Britain's biggest banks are set to spend the next year pushing through major revamps of their IT systems, as stress tests have revealed problems in their ability to gather data on their own loan books. The lenders have been built up over decades from mergers of smaller banks, leaving them with a range of outdated [...]
Bank of England stress tests: There’s still an elephant in the room December 15, 2014 With the Bank of England releasing the results of its stress tests today, banks’ financial strength is still a major concern for markets, regulators and policymakers. The second set of stress-testing results in just a two-month period, following the comprehensive assessment issued by the European Banking Authority and European Central Bank in October, the latest [...]
Stressing out: Britain’s lenders will be ticked off by the Bank of England as new tests bite December 14, 2014 If you happen to stroll down to Threadneedle Street in the early hours of tomorrow morning and find a hive of activity do not be alarmed – it’s just the start of the Bank of England’s inaugural stress tests results. While most of London slumbers at 5am, prudential regulation authority (PRA) officials will be locked [...]
Bank of England to publish transcripts from financial crisis era December 11, 2014 City economists will gain an unprecedented level of insight into the Bank of England’s decision-making process, as Mark Carney yesterday agreed to publish more information than ever. Detailed transcripts of policymakers’ discussions at the height of the financial crisis will be published, with some redactions to cover sensitive areas. And in future, transcripts [...]
Bank of England policy changes: The Bank wants to cut MPC meetings to eight a year December 11, 2014 The Bank of England has announced a raft of changes to the way it operates in an effort to increase transparency – including cutting the number of meetings its monetary policy committe (MPC) has each year from 12 to eight. Does this mean MPC members are as bored of interest rates – which this month [...]
Ian McCafferty: Bank of England MPC hawk lists four reasons he votes for an interest rate-rise December 10, 2014 One of the Bank of England monetary policy committee's two resident hawks, Ian McCafferty, has explained his reasoning behind voting for an interest rate rise "sooner rather than later". During a speech at a breakfast organised by the Institute of Directors this morning, McCafferty explained why he's voted for voting for an interest rate rise [...]
Bank of England: Most mortgage borrowers could cope with an interest rate rise December 8, 2014 The majority of mortgage borrowers could cope if interest rates rose two percentage points, the Bank of England said today. According to the Bank's quarterly bulletin, which looked at the results of the annual NMG Consulting survey of household finances, if interest rates rose from their historic low of 0.5 per cent to 2.5 per [...]