By: Samuel Norman

Senior City Reporter Samuel is a Senior City Reporter covering banking and fintech as well as stories on capital markets and economics. He also leads on City AM's morning liveblog from 7am everyday. He has previously written for the Daily Mail and The i Paper and worked for Sky News as an election stringer. He enjoys writing in-depth analysis of major blue-chip firms and start-ups and also industry trends. He can be contacted at samuel.norman@cityam.com and posts on LinkedIn and X at x.com/samnormanwrites.

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Natwest partners with OpenAI as FTSE giant scales up tech

March 20, 2025

Natwest announced on Thursday it has entered a partnership with OpenAI to focus on “bank-wide simplification”. The FTSE 100 lender said it would leverage AI to meet customers’ needs faster and more effectively, whilst increasing productivity and efficiency across operations. The firm said it would deploy “some of the latest and most powerful developments in [...]
Fintech boss outlines industry’s Spring Statement needs

March 20, 2025

With the Chancellor’s Spring Statement under a week away, a fintech boss has laid out how the government must support the industry. Laurent Descout, co-founder and chief executive of payments platform NEO, said Rachel Reeves must prioritise support for the fintech sector through two key areas: university funding and helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). [...]
City regulator appoints Asia-Pacific director in growth push

March 20, 2025

A top director at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will head up a new role in Asia as part of the regulator’s bid to boost growth, City AM has learned. Camille Blackburn, who is currently the director of wholesale buy-side at the regulator, will head up growth operations in the Asia-Pacific region. This follows the [...]
London closes in on New York as top financial hub but risks remain

March 20, 2025

London has edged closer to becoming the world’s top financial centre, fresh research shows, but concerns have been raised over the City’s future competitiveness. The 37th edition of Z/Yen Group’s Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 37) showed London maintained its second-place ranking amongst the world’s top financial centres, whilst climbing 12 points from its last [...]
Treasury on the hunt for new National Wealth Fund boss

March 19, 2025

The Treasury announced on Wednesday that it had begun searching for a new chief executive to lead the recently established National Wealth Fund. The policy bank’s current boss John Flint will exit the role this summer after overseeing the institution’s rebrand from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB). Flint, who is a former HSBC group chief [...]
Motor finance: Lloyds and Close Brothers shareholders await landmark hearing

March 19, 2025

The eyes of shareholders at Britain’s biggest lenders will be on April’s landmark motor finance hearing, as the scandal heads to the Supreme Court. The hearing, scheduled for April 1-3, will allow car loan providers to challenge the October 2024 Court of Appeal ruling that it was unlawful for banks to pay a commission to [...]
Santander to shut 95 branches – putting 750 jobs at risk

March 19, 2025

Santander announced a flurry of branch closures on Wednesday, which will place up to 750 employees at risk of redundancy. The bank, which is one of the UK’s most prominent mortgage lenders, will close 95 of its 444 branches as part of a structural overhaul that will begin in June 2025. Its updated branches network [...]
Pay awards stagnate ahead of national insurance hike

March 19, 2025

Pay growth at UK businesses is stagnating as businesses look to cut costs ahead of the Chancellor’s upcoming tax hikes. Figures compiled by HR data and insights provider Brightmine show that pay growth slumped following Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget, and have since stagnated at three per cent. The current figure now aligns with the Office [...]
UK fintechs sound alarm on spike in organised crime

March 19, 2025

Seven in ten UK fintechs said fraud volumes in their business shot up over the last year, according to new research. Alloy’s State of UK Fraud Report stated 79 per cent of UK fintech firms lost at least £500,000 to fraud in the 12 months to October 2024. Two in five recorded losses between £1m [...]
Analysts put Close Brothers shares ‘under review’ as stock plummets

March 18, 2025

Peel Hunt analysts placed Close Brothers shares ‘under review’ after the banking group suffered a £104m loss in the first half of its 2025 financial year. The lender said losses were driven by the £165m reserved for potential motor finance payouts, along with costs of complaint handling and legal expenses. Close Brothers’ stock sank as [...]

State pension set to pile pain on next generation of taxpayers, Healey warned

Why Manchester City’s £86m Bouaddi signing should ring alarm bells in French football

The way Dolly Parton announced her death is an inspiration to us all

By: Samuel Norman

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