Half of all UK bank branches have been shut or are scheduled for closure as fintech kills off 736 locations in 2021 alone December 27, 2021 New figures published this morning show that the number of bank branches across the UK is dropping dramatically. In fact, nearly half of all banks’ branches have been lost since 2015, or are scheduled for closure, according to Which? Vulnerable customers are being left at risk of being “cut adrift”, the consumer organisation said after [...]
HSBC fined £64m for eight years of anti-money laundering failures December 17, 2021 Britain’s financial watchdog has fined HSBC Bank £63.9m for failings in its anti-money laundering processes in the eight-year period between 2010 and 2018, it said this morning. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had identified “serious weaknesses” in three key parts of the automated processes that the banking giant uses to monitor hundreds of [...]
HSBC’s $94m-a-year audits may not be enough to woo Big Four accountants November 22, 2021 Fears that the UK’s biggest lender will struggle to attract the Big Four accounting firms have been stoked as HSBC prepares to tender the audits of its accounts next year, according to reports. The heads of HSBC reached out to the Big Four auditors but found they were reluctant to bid for the bank’s audits [...]
Record 267 bank branches were closed across UK within just three months November 10, 2021 Data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) shows that 267 bank and building society branches were closed permanently between April and June of this year, leaving the overall network 4.55 per cent smaller at 5,599. The closures meant less than two-thirds of the UK population (60.1 per cent) are now within 2km of a bank [...]
COP26: HSBC makes green push as it pumps £500m into new fund for SMEs across UK November 8, 2021 HSBC has launched a £500m Green SME Fund, the banking giant said. The new £500m fund is available for businesses with a turnover of less than £25m and will offer 1 per cent cashback on loans, starting from £1,000 to help SMEs invest in green activities, HSBC clarified. “This is the first green offering for small businesses with a [...]
HSBC online banking hit by an outage, impacting business customers October 25, 2021 HSBC’s online banking has been down this morning, according to reports, which primarily impacted the bank’s business customers. Service complaints spiked at around 9:30am this morning, according to DownDetecter, with more than 60 per cent of the complaints regarding HSBC’s online banking. The issue had largely been resolved by around 11:30am, with reports of the [...]
Private equity salaries swell by 52 per cent to £152k as war for talent with banks intensifies October 11, 2021 Private equity firms are prepared to pay junior staff with less than two years experience an average salary of more than £152,000, a jump of 52 per cent compared to two years ago. In 2019, private equity professionals across Europe with only two years in the industry were paid, on average, just under £100,000 in [...]
Buy-to-let and partnerships power LendInvest portfolios in first results since IPO October 11, 2021 In its first update since going public, property finance asset manager Lendinvest has reported a 31.7 per cent increase in assets under management and a 39.8 per cent increase in funds under management. The growth was caused by record originations in buy-to-let (BTL) as well as new transactions and financial partnerships – including the £100 [...]
UK’s big five banks set to pay out £7bn in dividends as their earnings soar October 10, 2021 The UK’s largest banks are preparing to hand out a collective £7bn in dividends this year, on the back of earnings hitting their highest level for the sector since 2008. The £7bn payout would be more than double the £3.3bn handed out in dividends by the UK’s big five in 2020. The UK’s five largest [...]
Helena Morrissey criticises HSBC and City of London as she calls for dump of China stock October 5, 2021 City insider Baroness Helena Morrissey has called on investors to ditch their stakes in Chinese companies due to the accusations of human rights abuses in the country. Morrissey, a chair for AJ Bell, also criticised HSBC and the City of London Corporation for their stance on China, as the bank alongside Standard Chartered, had last [...]