Buy now, sell-off later: Where did Klarna’s IPO go wrong? February 20, 2026 When Klarna finally kicked off its Wall Street listing in September chatter quickly emerged whether the move would open the floodgates to a fleet of fintech listings. With the likes of Monzo, Zilch, Revolut and Starling all speculated to be eagerly waiting in the wings, all eyes were on the Swedish unicorn as a taster [...]
Klarna delivers $1bn quarter but shareholder returns take beating February 19, 2026 Klarna delivered a record quarter at the end of 2025, with revenue rocketing, but the firm reported a major slump in shareholder returns after its stock price took a bruising following its public debut. The Swedish fintech unicorn notched just north of $1bn (£743m) in revenue, marking a 38 per cent jump year-on-year as active [...]
Bank of Ireland’s UK arm hit with £3.8m fine for fraud failures February 19, 2026 The Bank of Ireland’s UK arm has been slapped with a hefty fine after failing to hit the deadline by over a year to implement an anti-fraud service. The lender was hit with a £3.7m fine from the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) for missing the deadline by 14 months for a “vital” service that would [...]
Natwest and Lloyds shares lead FTSE 100 rally after bruising week February 16, 2026 Natwest led a rally across Britain’s banking giants on Monday morning as lenders patched their wounds after a bruising week on the stock market. The bank topped the FTSE 100’s risers at the starting bell, gaining over four per cent in early trading to 603.60p. Barclays was shortly behind, advancing over 2.5 per cent to [...]
Pay for Natwest’s top boss balloons to £6.6m as bonuses soar February 13, 2026 The boss of Natwest has defended a bumper rise to his pay packet in the last financial year as the bank dished out the cash on employee bonuses. The group’s chief Paul Thwaite pocketed a £6.6m package, an increase of 33 per cent from £4.9m in 2024. “I recognize that senior roles in financial services [...]
Natwest hikes dividend after profit hits post-financial crisis high February 13, 2026 Natwest laid out plans to splash the cash to shareholders in its full-year earnings report on Friday as the bank’s profit reached its highest since the 2008 financial crisis. The FTSE 100 banking giant – which returned to private ownership in the last year – recorded pre-tax profit of £7.7bn in 2025 financial year, up [...]
UK fintech Zempler Bank snapped up for less than half previous valuation February 12, 2026 London-based fintech Zempler Bank has been snapped up by Nigeria’s biggest bank in a deal that has slashed the firm’s valuation, City AM can reveal. The small business lender – formerly known as Cashplus – has been acquired by The Access Bank UK with a price tag of around £3.45p per share. The sale represents [...]
Close Brothers MD: I started my career working for Gordon Ramsay February 12, 2026 Chiara Caldwell, managing director at Close Brothers, tells us how she went from fine dining to banking in Square Mile and Me.
Lloyds to close 95 more bank branches across UK February 11, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group is set to make a further full to its branch network with 95 sites face the shutter. The FTSE 100 banking giant announced the fresh closures on Wednesday, which will affect Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland sites. The closures will take place between May 2026 and March 2027. Lloyds will take [...]
Barclays boss calls for political ‘stability’ as banker’s pay packet swells to £15m February 10, 2026 The boss of British banking giant Barclays has called for “stability” across the political landscape as the Labour government’s future faces uncertainty. CS Venkatakrishnan, the bank’s chief executive who is known as Venkat, faced questions on the turmoil in Number 10 after Barclays published its full-year earnings report. “From the point of view of businesses [...]