Lloyds to hand shareholders over £17bn by 2027, analysts say August 26, 2025 Lloyds Banking Group shareholders are set for a bumper payout with analysts projecting the lender will return over £17bn to investors by 2027. The FTSE 100 giant was listed as Jefferies analysts “preferred” banking stock following a strong year-to-date performance. Shares in Lloyds have jumped over 50 per cent since January. The bank received a [...]
Atom chair: Big banks don’t know their role in economic growth August 20, 2025 The chair of digital bank Atom has slammed Britain’s banking giants for failing to drive the country’s economic ambitions. Lee Rochford, who had tenures at Virgin Money, RBS and BNP before Atom, said it was “increasingly unclear what role [top banks] are playing in driving better customer outcomes or supporting UK economic growth”. Chancellor Rachel [...]
How the banking net zero fantasy ran out of gas August 20, 2025 Over the past year, the world’s biggest banks‘ net zero enthusiasm has quickly and quietly dried up. Top lenders have backtracked, diluted or outright abandoned their environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies. The return of President Donald Trump has been highlighted as a turning point for green finance with firms across the financial industry turning sour [...]
FTSE 100 banks add £80bn in market value this year August 19, 2025 Shares in the UK’s top FTSE 100 banks, Barclays, Natwest, Lloyds and HSBC have all hit decade highs this year, producing more than £80bn in market value. The banking sector is the second-best performing FTSE 100 sector this year with a return of 37 per cent, second only to the defence sector. The FTSE 100’s [...]
Motor finance ruling hands City banks £7bn stock boost August 4, 2025 The FTSE 100’s banking giants added billions to their market value on Monday after a hefty boost from the Supreme Court’s motor finance ruling. Lloyds Banking Group bolstered its market capitalisation by over £3.5bn after a seven per cent surge to a five-year high on the back of the top Court’s ruling last Friday. The [...]
FTSE 100 banks outperform but face tougher waters ahead August 4, 2025 The FTSE 100’s banking constituents breezed through the second quarter results season as interest income remained stable and trading income soared on the back of market volatility. The ‘Big Five’ banks of London’s flagship stock index – Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds and Standard Chartered – pocketed a combined £12.8bn in the three months to June [...]
Barclays follows HSBC in ditching net zero banks club August 1, 2025 Barclays has become the second London-based bank to exit the net zero banks club as the financial services industry continues to row back on climate policies. The FTSE 100 giant – which recorded a £1bn profit jump for the second quarter – said on Friday the UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) “no longer has [...]
Rachel Reeves could use bank windfall tax to plug Labour’s U-turns July 31, 2025 Rachel Reeves could launch a fresh tax grab on banks to plug the spending holes left by Labour’s recent U-turns, new analysis has found. The Chancellor is poised to hike taxes in the Autumn Budget after a series of government policy switches eroded her already wafer-thin fiscal headroom of £9.9bn. This comes as fresh research [...]
Banks back in crosshairs as Labour eyes tax hikes July 31, 2025 George Osborne’s likely payday from the sale of Robey Warshaw to US giant Evercore won’t be the first time he’s extracted money from the banking sector. In his inaugural 2010 Budget he announced a UK bank levy of 0.05 per cent on certain bank liabilities. Conceived in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the [...]
Nationwide wins big in mass switch from FTSE 100 banks July 30, 2025 Nationwide has raided the customer base of Britain’s banking titans as current account switchers flocked away from legacy firms. The building society welcomed nearly 73,000 switchers in the first three months of the year, compared to 17,000 outflows, according to Pay.uk data. This comes after the mutual returned billions to customers in 2024, whilst the [...]