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 [...]
Global Counsel loses more clients as Epstein scandal deepens February 11, 2026 The crisis engulfing the lobbying firm founded by Peter Mandelson, Global Counsel, deepened on Tuesday, after three more of its blue-chip clients parted ways with the advisory over its links to co-founder Mandelson and the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. City AM understands that pensions giant Phoenix, Tesco and Bank of America have all severed [...]
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 [...]
Barclays kicks off £15bn shareholder bonanza after profit rises February 10, 2026 Barclays kickstarted plans to dish out heaps of cash to shareholders on Tuesday after the bank’s profit breezed ahead of expectations for the 2025 financial year. The FTSE 100 giant launched a fresh £1bn share buyback after pre-tax profit soared 13 per cent in the last 12 months to £9.1bn. This came ahead of internal [...]
FTSE 100 Live: BP tumbles on buyback suspension, Barclays profit boost February 10, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. It was a rocky day for bond markets on Monday as political jitters rippled through the City. The 10-year gilt yield – a key benchmark for the government – rose as much as 10 basis points to 4.62 per cent following news that Scottish Labour [...]
Lobbying chief urges firms not to work with unregistered agencies February 10, 2026 The boss of the lobbying sector’s industry body has urged public affairs chiefs to stop working with agencies that have not signed up to its code of conduct, after several blue-chip companies were forced to sever ties with Peter Mandelson’s lobby firm, Global Counsel. In a draft letter seen by City AM, PRCA chief Sarah [...]
Why Natwest splashed the cash for a slice of the wealth management pie February 10, 2026 Natwest has opened its wallet for its biggest deal since the financial crisis, as the bank revives its appetite for acquisitions after the remaining government-owned shares in the business were finally sold. But after the FTSE 100 firm watched its share price sink into the red on Monday, will there be a sense of buyer’s [...]
Natwest shares sink after bank unveils £2.7bn wealth deal February 9, 2026 Natwest has beat its banking rivals to snap up wealth manager Evelyn Partners and laid out plans to kick off a new round of shareholder returns. The FTSE 100 banking giant, which returned to privatisation last year, said it had sealed a £2.7bn deal to purchase the firm from its private equity owners Permira and [...]
NatWest nears £2.5bn Evelyn Partners takeover February 7, 2026 NatWest Group is closing in on a £2.5bn takeover of Evelyn Partners, in what would be its biggest corporate acquisition since the bank’s taxpayer bailout in 2008. NatWest Group is in advanced talks to buy the wealth manager from its private equity owners, Sky News reported on Saturday, after seeing off competition from Barclays in recent days. An announcement [...]
Havas keeps quiet on whether Ian Osborne will stay on board after Epstein files February 6, 2026 Havas is keeping quiet on whether Ian Osborne will stay on its board as the French PR giant weighs the impact of fresh details concerning the relationship between the British exec and Jeffrey Epstein. Osborne, who is a non-executive director of Havas, launched his own consultancy business, Osborne and Partners, in 2009 and offered advice [...]