Metro Bank trebles profit amid pivot to specialist lending August 6, 2025 Metro Bank more than trebled its profit in the first six months of the year as its transformation strategy gained pace. The high street lender recorded an underlying profit before tax of £45m, compared with £12.8m in the second half of 2024. Revenue grew 22 per cent to £286m whilst operating costs fell eight per [...]
FCA boss rejects criticism of motor finance redress August 5, 2025 The head of the UK’s financial watchdog has pushed back at industry claims that the wide scope of the motor finance redress scheme is “impractical”. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority said: “We know it is difficult. But you can’t say the law has been broken and it is too difficult to [...]
S&U: Motor finance redress scheme must show a changed FCA August 5, 2025 The chair of specialist lender S&U has said the motor finance redress scheme offers the UK’s financial watchdog the prime opportunity to turn its ‘regulate for growth’ rhetoric into action. Anthony Coombs hailed the “common sense” car finance ruling from the Supreme Court as attention turns to the response by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). But [...]
Revolut mulling plans to take on China’s fintech giants July 30, 2025 UK fintech juggernaut Revolut is weighing expansion into China in a move that would see the company take on the likes of Ant Group-owned Alipay and Wechat. The firm told investors on a pitchdeck during its secondary share sale last year it was assessing “hiring, licensing [and] scoping” opportunities in China. The fintech was also [...]
Motor finance: ‘Nothing is certain’ as banks await historic ruling July 30, 2025 The Supreme Court will hand down what could be the “most consequential ruling for lenders” in recent history on Friday in the dramatic culmination of the motor finance saga. In a twist, the highest court in the land surprised the market last Friday evening after updating its system with the information that it will announce [...]
Rachel Reeves at odds with Bank of England over Revolut licence bid July 29, 2025 Rachel Reeves has clashed with the governor of the Bank of England after trying to support Revolut in its protracted regulatory process to secure a full banking licence. The Chancellor is reported to have attempted to secure a meeting between financial watchdogs and Revolut in hopes of pushing forward its banking licence bid. But the [...]
FCA names interim FOS chair after abrupt leadership shake-up July 28, 2025 The Financial Conduct Authority has named a new interim chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service after its initial recruitment campaign “proved unsuccessful”. The City regulator appointed Liam Coleman as the watchdog’s temporary chair, which comes as controversy surrounds the departures of former leadership. Coleman will replace Baroness Zahida Manzoor who abruptly announced in February she [...]
Financial services firms dealt tens of millions in regulatory fines July 17, 2025 While deregulation may be the political mood, UK watchdogs are sharpening their swords as banking giants bleed millions in regulatory fines. In under just ten days, the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England handed out £74.9m worth of fines to a trio of UK financial services firms. Leading the pack, and most recently, was [...]
MPs slam Online Safety Act as ‘not up to scratch’ July 11, 2025 The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) is failing to protect the public from the spread of harmful misinformation and must be urgently overhauled, MPs have warned in a damning new report. In findings published Tuesday, Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC) said the OSA – which began to take effect earlier this year – [...]
Bank of England hits Mastercard subsidiary with £12m fine July 9, 2025 A Mastercard-owned company has been fined almost £12m by the Bank of England after it failed to fully comply with a regulatory order to fix weaknesses in its risk management. Vocalink – which was acquired by Mastercard in 2017 – has been slapped with the £11.9m fine due to failing to meet directions from the [...]