FCA vows to slash red tape by 70 per cent for investment firms April 24, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has laid out new rules as it bows to government pressure to slash the amount of red tape on investment firms. The move, designed to streamline what types of funds investment firms must hold to absorb losses and maintain financial resilience during periods of stress, is expected to reduce the [...]
Tariffs to take focus as HSBC and Barclays kick off FTSE 100 bank results April 10, 2025 First-quarter results season is around the corner for the UK’s major banks, with HSBC and Barclays set to report at the end of the month. Whilst President Donald Trump launched his tariff onslaught at the beginning of April – narrowly missing the first reporting period of the year – lenders are expected to factor the [...]
Barclays shares explode higher as FTSE 100 rebounds April 10, 2025 Shares in FTSE 100 giant Barclays rocketed in early trading after Trump rolled back his ‘Liberation Day’ levies. The bank’s stock shot up over 20 per cent as markets opened, before falling back to a 15 per cent gain. The firm topped the blue-chip index’s risers. The gains helped reverse the lender’s losses in the [...]
Bank of England asks lenders about clients’ stability as Reeves brands system ‘resilient’ April 8, 2025 The Bank of England has asked lenders about their clients’ financial well-being after Trump’s tariff onslaught triggered chaos across financial markets. The central bank asked firms for information about market liquidity and whether any of their clients were having funding problems, according to the Financial Times. The Prudential Regulation Authority, which is responsible for the [...]
Shawbrook Bank reports profit slump despite loan book growth March 27, 2025 Shawbrook Bank announced a boost to its deposit and loan book in its annual results, driven by commercial and retail markets. The bank’s loan book grew 16 per cent to £15.2bn in 2024, compared to the £13.3bn recorded in 2023. Despite this, profit before tax dipped to £294m, a minor drop from the £302m booked [...]
Mark Kleinman: Monzo chief lands windfall amid listing debate March 27, 2025 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column. This week, he tackles a nice payday for the Monzo boss, an unlikely friendship, and the great British export that is the Premier League. Bravery or foolhardiness? Klarna’s decision to press the button on a US initial [...]
AI adoption at UK banks lags behind US rivals March 17, 2025 UK banks are playing catch up to their US and European counterparts on AI adoption, new research has revealed. Evident Insight’s latest Responsible AI Report showed US banks led the way for AI specialists, with 20 positions alone at JPMorganChase – three times the average lender. Co-founder and co-chief executive of Evident Insights Alexandra Mousavizadeh [...]
Natwest, Barclays, HSBC lead months worth of online banking outages March 6, 2025 Nine of the UK’s biggest banks and building societies were down for over 803 hours – the equivalent of 33 days – over the last two years. Fresh data from the Treasury Committee shows a minimum of 158 IT failure incidents at banks had affected millions of consumers in the period between January 2023 and [...]
Banks accused of ‘rigging the system’ against consumers February 27, 2025 Britain’s top banks are “rigging the system” against consumers and the government must do more, a fintech chief executive has claimed. Financial wellbeing platform Wagestream found 90 per cent of Brits believe they should be saving money but nearly half fear they won’t save a single penny in 2025. The fintech’s ‘State of Financial Wellbeing [...]
FTSE 100 lenders pocket record total profit February 21, 2025 Standard Chartered was the last of the FTSE 100’s biggest banks to release its annual results, as analysts praised the strong performance across all of the Big Five. Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds and Standard Chartered booked an all-time high of £50.3bn in profit in 2024 and returned £35bn to investors. Russ Mould, investment director at [...]