Aldermore’s sale interest shows banks are over motor finance Banking Lloyds, Nationwide and Investec are all tipped to be circling Aldemore as its South African over prepares a sale. Samuel Norman takes a look at the runners and riders and what it could do for the market. Has the banking industry finally moved on from motor finance? The number of suiters circling Aldermore suggest as [...]
Top UK banks to raise £50m to build payments network Banking Britain’s biggest banks are set to kick off a fundraising campaign that will pave the way for a domestic payments alternative to Mastercard and Visa. The UK Payments Delivery Company (PDC) is launching an equity capital raise as part of a new model from the Bank of England, aligning with the Treasury’s National Payments Vision, [...]
Treasury sought to cap motor finance payouts, court filings claim Banking The government sought to cap payouts in the motor finance scandal at a level lenders could absorb and the City regulator acted “unlawfully” in failing to protect consumers, new court filings seen by City AM allege. Both the Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are facing fresh scrutiny over the motor finance redress scheme as [...]
Reform sidelines crypto industry at pivotal conference August 28, 2026 Reform UK is set to sideline crypto companies at its conference next week and cut the industry’s access to senior figures after backlash over Nigel Farage’s £5m gift from a bitcoin billionaire, City AM can reveal. Reform was an early champion of the digital currency and tokenisation industries, which have been a mainstay at previous [...]
Lloyds Bank and Halifax users unable to use app in latest outage August 26, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group has been hit with another app outage that has left thousands of customers unable to use services. The financial giant – which has Lloyds, Halifax and Scottish Widows under its umbrella – said it was “working to get things back to normal as quickly as we can” as users took to social [...]
Lloyds and Natwest flaunt social credentials as fears grow of Burnham tax grab August 26, 2026 Lloyds and Natwest are flaunting their community credentials and pledging a raft of new social investment initiatives as fears grow that Prime Minister Andy Burnham will launch a punishing tax raid on the sector with the government’s first Budget. The two lenders are among a group of top UK banks looking to prove they can [...]
London pensions firm eyes more deals after HSBC and Lloyds takeovers August 25, 2026 Pension consolidator Chesnara has said it is eyeing more deals after it swung back into profit following its takeover of HSBC Life UK. The London-listed firm recorded a £61m pre-tax profit in the first half of 2026, bouncing back from a £5m loss in the same period last year. Revenue soared to £255.9m, up from [...]
Big bank bosses on alert as tax noise gets louder under Burnham August 5, 2026 Banks have delivered booming profits for the first half of the year. In this week’s column Samuel Norman takes a look at how the calls for a tax rise on the sector will get louder under the new Prime Minister. “The saxophones are getting louder” is the internet’s new saying to depict growing anxiety. If you [...]
HSBC kicks off $1bn share buyback after profit smashes forecast August 4, 2026 HSBC has resumed its share buyback programme after profit soared past expectations in the second quarter of 2026. The FTSE 100 bank – whose market cap of £274bn makes it the London Stock Exchange’s most valuable company – posted $10.1bn (£7.5bn) in pre-tax profit for the last three months, surging past an internal forecast of [...]
‘It’s going to impact work’: Lloyds to cut £2bn in costs with AI July 30, 2026 The boss of Lloyds Banking Group is preparing to wield the axe on its cost base as the bank doubles down on AI ambitions. Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of the financial services giant, said AI is “going to impact work” and “require us to reskill people and hire new people” as he revealed a [...]