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 [...]
Standard Chartered wealth arm booms in volatile second quarter July 31, 2025 Standard Chartered’s wealth and markets arms boomed in a volatile second quarter of the year driving a surge in profit at the London-listed bank. The FTSE 100 firm recorded a 47 per cent uptick in global markets income on a constant currency basis, as takings topped $1.2bn (£900m) for the second quarter. Meanwhile, wealth solutions [...]
Natwest and Lloyds: What to expect from FTSE 100 bank earnings next week July 21, 2025 The FTSE 100’s banking titans, Natwest, Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC are gearing up for what promises to be an interesting half-year reporting season. Lloyds and Natwest will kick off earnings on July 24 and July 25 followed by peers Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered the following week. The first quarter was defined by President Donald Trump’s [...]
UK’s financial services stronghold slips July 10, 2025 The UK’s position as a financial services leader has cracked as under-investment and staff reductions weigh on the sector. Nearly half of senior financial professionals believe the UK’s dominance is waning, research from the CRIF found. Over 40 per cent said they would no longer consider the country a global leader in the industry. Sara [...]
Financial services brace for more job cuts as clouds gather July 7, 2025 Financial services firms are expecting a rapid increase in jobs losses over the coming months as investment plans and optimism levels sink to fresh lows. The sector’s activity fell at the fastest rate since December 2023 in the three months to June, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). This marked the first time [...]
British banks shed workers at fastest pace since 2018 July 2, 2025 British bankers were on the chopping block in 2024 as UK lenders marked the steepest drop in headcount since 2018 amid an industry-wide digital push. Total employee numbers at British lenders slumped 5.25 per cent to 580,371, falling to the lowest number in a decade. Standard Chartered and HSBC made the biggest culls at 4.5 [...]
Standard Chartered slapped with $2.7bn lawsuit over fraud scandal July 1, 2025 Standard Chartered has been hit with a $2.7bn lawsuit over its alleged role in one of the world’s largest financial fraud cases, known as the 1MBD scandal. The London-headquartered lender is being accused of helping move and hide billions of dollars that were stolen from Malaysia’s 1MDB fund, by not sufficiently checking to see where [...]
Will banks be able to escape a Reeves’ tax raid this Autumn? June 27, 2025 As Rachel Reeves watches her fiscal headroom crumble with every Labour U-turn, the Chancellor may return to her budget mantra that those with the “broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden”. Lenders managed to skirt a tax raid in the 2024 budget after lobbyists warned it could damage the sector’s international competitiveness, but renewed fiscal [...]
Barclays and Natwest shares jump as conflict sparks inflation fears June 16, 2025 Shares in the FTSE 100’s top banks were rising on Monday as the intensifying conflict in the Middle East triggered inflation fears. Barclays and Natwest were up nearly two per cent and Lloyds over one per cent during early trading as oil prices crept up another one per cent to $74.90 a barrel. This follows [...]