Restructuring and foreign currency headwinds hammer Santander profits April 30, 2019 Santander saw profits fall by a tenth as the Spanish banking giant kicked on with a major restructuring in the UK and Poland. Read more: Santander and Barclays face lawsuits over film financing schemes The company was also hit by high inflation in Argentina which hampered earnings further, despite customer growth across its core markets [...]
Can European banks be saved by mergers and a fresh round of deal making? April 16, 2019 The comparisons with US peers just got a lot harder for European banks after a strong showing from JP Morgan to kick off earnings season. But could there be fresh revenue on the way for European investment banks, even if it is of their own making? There’s a mooted capital raising for Deutsche Bank before [...]
Santander and Barclays face lawsuits over film financing schemes April 8, 2019 Santander and Barclays are facing lawsuits from investors in failed film financing schemes. Santander could be sued for the role of legacy bank Alliance & Leicester’s role in part-funding the Imagine film financing scheme while Barclays is beng targeted over a similar scheme known as Timeless Releasing. Read more: HSBC sued for £150m in relation [...]
Gender pay gap data reveals the financial services with wider than average discrepancies April 5, 2019 Some of the large companies with the widest gender pay gaps come from the financial services sector. The deadline for providing gender pay gap data closed last night. For large companies – those employing more than 5,000 staff – the average pay gap was 10.34 per cent. The financial services entities below have gender pay [...]
Finance leaders raise £300,000 for children’s charity Barnardo’s March 22, 2019 More than 200 City finance leaders raised almost £300,000 for children's charity Barnardo's to combat issues like sexual exploitation earlier this week. Read more: Record year for charity lottery fundraising Barnardo's chief executive Javed Khan said the money will fund the charity's “specialist frontline services, which help children recover from their experiences, and build bright, positive futures”. Barnardo's [...]
Dads, parenting, and the gender pay gap – equality at home will lead to fixing inequality in the workplace February 12, 2019 We have all seen the uproar caused by gender pay gaps. Transparency has helped bring about change, but discrepancies in pay will never be eliminated and workplace inequality will never end if employers don’t support equality at home. And while women must continue to be supported at work, men are the other half of the [...]
The bonus is on you: Santander’s recent saga highlights the problems with deferred rewards February 4, 2019 Star investment banker Andrea Orcel was about to take the top job at Santander. And then he wasn’t. It turns out that the bank hadn’t quite realised how expensive Orcel would be, resulting in an unprecedented U-turn, as the board announced that Santander wouldn’t be hiring him after all. While Jose Antonio Alvarez will continue [...]
Banks suffer hundreds of high street closures during 2018 January 31, 2019 Walk-in banks suffered more net closures than any other type of retailer last year, as fast-growing digital rivals lured shoppers away from traditional high street heavyweights. While beleaguered department stores have been stealing the doom-and-gloom headlines for the retail sector in recent months, Britain’s bricks-and-mortar banks saw the greatest retrenchment last year, with some 716 [...]
Metro Bank shares plunge after warning on UK operating environment January 30, 2019 Shares in Metro Bank fell more than 10 per cent this morning after the challenger bank felt the ripple effect of Banco Santander’s cautionary comments on the UK market. In its full-year results this morning Banco Santander said the UK’s operating environment is “competitive and uncertain”, dragging down the share price of Metro Bank which [...]
Santander closures: 14 London branches to be shut down January 23, 2019 Santander has announced that 14 London stores will be shuttered as part of the bank's plan to close a total of 140 branches across the UK. Three branches will be closed in the Square Mile, with the Gracechurch Street, Leather Lane and Ludgate Circus banks facing closure this year. Read more: Santander cuts 140 branches – putting 1,270 [...]