Bank of England pushes back date for changes to Sonia, an alternative to Libor for some contracts February 16, 2017 The Bank of England today announced it was delaying changes to the way a key interest rate benchmark is calculated. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street was due to implement changes for how the Sterling Overnight Index Average (Sonia) is calculated by the end of this year, but announced this morning the new calculations would instead be [...]
Italian parliament signs off on €20bn bank bailout fund, as country’s lenders creak under billions of euros of non-performing loans February 16, 2017 Italy's parliament has today given the thumbs up to the law which will create a €20bn (£17bn) bailout fund for the country's troubled banks. Parliament gave a decree for the bailout fund, which was issued by relatively new Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, the green light last December. Now, Bloomberg has reported the parliament's lower house has given final [...]
The City of London’s policy chair is taking up the chairman role at the firm which runs the UK’s cash machine network February 16, 2017 The firm responsible for running the UK's 70,000-strong cash machine network has appointed the City of London's policy chair as its new chairman. Mark Boleat, who will chair the policy and resources committee at the City of London Corporation until May and is also deputy chairman of think tank TheCityUK, will join Link Scheme as chairman shortly. [...]
All change at Bob Diamond’s Atlas Mara as chief exec steps down February 16, 2017 Atlas Mara, the African investment vehicle co-founded by former Barclays boss Bob Diamond, has unveiled plans for a shake-up. The investor, which in October reported a 70 per cent slide in pre-tax profits, said chief executive John Vitalo had stepped down, with a replacement to be announced in "due course". Vitalo, who joined the company in [...]
Big five banks run up £100bn bill in bad loans and legal costs over the last five years February 16, 2017 The UK's big five banks, which report full-year results next week, have run up a bill of nearly £100bn over the last five years for a toxic mix of fines and bad loans according to a new analysis. However, the era of sour loans and megafines that dwarf the banks' dividend payouts could finally be [...]
Get your CV ready – the Supreme Court is hiring three new judges February 16, 2017 If last month's Brexit case made you want to call the shots on some of the most important legal cases in the country, the opportunity to do so has just presented itself. The Supreme Court has today kicked off the search for two new justices plus a new president of the court. The vacancies have [...]
ABN Amro profits leap in fourth quarter, beating analysts’ expectations February 15, 2017 ABN Amro beat expectations today by reporting its fourth quarter profits grew by more than a fifth. The figures The Dutch lender reported profits of €1.8bn (£1.5bn) for its 2016 full year, down six per cent on €1.9bn the year before. However, profits for the fourth quarter alone sprung up to €333m, an increase of 23 per cent [...]
Low interest rates knock Credit Agricole’s quarterly profits, but numbers beat expectations February 15, 2017 Credit Agricole became the latest European bank to report a slump in its profits this morning, as low interest rates continued to put pressure on its bottom line. The figures The French lender reported full-year net income of €3.5bn (£3bn), largely flat on the year before – although the fourth-quarter figure was €291m down 67 per cent from €882m. These [...]
