Banks are back: How the UK’s banking sector got its mojo back as dividend payments rise March 26, 2015 The UK’s banks are back on form and could be the best place to invest for good and growing dividends. British banks such as Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays were once the best places to invest for solid dividends. Ten years ago, banks provided a quarter of all dividends in the UK market, according to figures [...]
HSBC chairman: Tech firms only want your data March 24, 2015 TECHNOLOGY firms offering payment and other finance services are only interested in harvesting your data, not in providing the service itself, HSBC’s chairman Douglas Flint said yesterday. He warned that this raised privacy and data protection worries, with customer information potentially passed around many more firms. “It is clear many people who want to get [...]
HSBC’s brum do as 1,000 set to move to new HQ March 24, 2015 HSBC will set up a new headquarters in Birmingham for its UK retail bank, when it implements the ring-fence which divide its investment banking operations from its retail work. Around 1,000 roles will move from London to Birmingham before the new rules are implemented in January 2015. The city was home to Midland Bank, which [...]
HSBC to move 1,000 jobs from Canary Wharf to Birmingham March 24, 2015 HSBC will move 1,000 jobs from its Canary Wharf headquarters to Birmingham from 2017, the bank said today. In a statement today, it added that the jobs will be head office roles at its ring-fenced bank. Under rules due to be set out by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), banks must separate their "core" retail [...]
On life, taxes and Osborne’s chance to beat a £20bn target March 18, 2015 If taxes are one of life’s few certainties, then taxes on banks are becoming just as predictable. Just when HSBC thought its lot could not get any tougher, up pops George Osborne with his bi-annual hike to the rate of the charge on lenders’ balance sheets. The chancellor’s final pre-General Election Budget included a commitment [...]
HSBC switches auditors to PwC after decade with rivals KPMG March 18, 2015 HSBC yesterday announced plans to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers as its auditor, replacing KPMG which had held the position since 1991. Europe’s biggest bank said the appointment would be put to shareholders at its 2015 annual general meeting on 24 April, but that the recommendation was the result of a competitive tender. “The tender process was both [...]
Ex-HSBC boss Lord Green breaks silence on Swiss tax scandal: Here’s what he said March 18, 2015 Lord Green, the former boss of scandal hit bank HSBC, has broken his silence over the Swiss tax row which engulfed the bank and saw senior executives face MPs. Green, also a former government minister, was chief executive and chairman of HSBC while its Swiss private banking arm helped wealthy clients evade tax. Now, more [...]
HSBC confirms PwC will take over as auditor from KPMG this month March 18, 2015 HSBC will replace auditor KPMG with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) after the latter announced its resignation from the position as the Company's auditor from 31 March 2015, the bank confirmed today. PwC's appointment will be put to shareholder's at the bank's annual general meeting held on 24 April this year. HSBC originally announced its intentions to switch [...]
HSBC to close Jersey accounts in crackdown on tax avoidance March 17, 2015 HSBC has begun contacting thousands of holders of Jersey accounts who live in the UK in a bid to avoid accusations that it is helping to shelter money from tax authorities. Britain’s biggest bank has written to customers with such accounts to ask them to take proof of identity to a branch on the island, [...]
Bankers to face new fitness test under FCA rules March 16, 2015 Financial services firms will be forced to vet thousands of staff each year and make sure they are “fit and proper” to perform their roles under a new framework being finalised by City regulators. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will today publish the final proposals for a new regime [...]