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.

All 1491 Articles

FTSE 100 Live: Stocks drop amid US-Iran war mixed messaging; House prices up

May 1, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Markets are scrambling for some messaging this morning as tensions around the Iran war drag on. Donald Trump faced a deadline for today whether to formally end the war in Iran or make the case to the US Congress for extending it. But an official [...]
Lloyds shares upgraded to ‘Buy’ after interest rates tailwind

April 30, 2026

Analysts at UBS slapped a ‘Buy’ rating on shares in Lloyds Banking Group as the financial services giant looks to receive a bump to its bottom line from the elevated interest rate path. Jason Napier, analyst at UBS, said: “Given the tailwinds from rate hedges… we see strong future momentum in profits as a relatively [...]
Standard Chartered registers $190m charge on Iran war

April 30, 2026

Standard Chartered’s impairment charges jumped in the first quarter as the bank set aside a hefty sum to cover volatility in the Middle East. The FTSE 100 giant booked $296m in credit impairment charges, with $190m of this coming from “precautionary management overlays” related to the war in Iran. The Asian-focused bank’s activity in the [...]
Bank of England Live: Interest rates held as hawks warn of ‘highly uncertain’ energy prices

April 30, 2026

Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has today decided to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent in a hawkish display. In last month’s decision, the Bank held rates in a unanimous decision. Afterwards, short-term gilt yields, which reflect government borrowing costs, sharply rose as traders priced [...]
Exclusive: Lloyds in tie-up with Google to build AI agents

April 30, 2026

Lloyds Banking Group has formed a tie-up with Google as the financial services giant sets its sight on building its own AI agents, City AM can reveal. The blue-chip lender is leveraging Google Cloud – the tech giant’s suite of computing services – and the bank’s existing Large Language Model to create a new internal [...]
Monzo lost one current account switcher for every two gained in 2025

April 30, 2026

UK fintech darling Monzo lost one current account switcher for every two it gained last year. The neobank registered just over 20,000 new switchers in the final quarter, but over half of this was offset by the 11,000 thousand outflows. The picture for the final few months of the year mirrors the picture for the [...]
Lloyds fires bank tax warning shot as industry ‘ripe for cash grab’

April 29, 2026

Lloyds Banking Group has warned the Treasury not to look at the banks for a tax raid as the industry sets its sights on booming profits in 2026. The FTSE 100 giant beat profit expectations by a cool £200m in the first-quarter after booking £2bn. This was also followed up by an upgrade to its [...]
Mercedes Benz joins legal battle over £9bn motor finance scheme

April 29, 2026

Mercedes Benz is confirmed to be among the four legal challenges lodged against the UK financial watchdog’s motor finance redress scheme. The financial services arm of the German car giant is set to challenge the scheme that puts the car finance industry on the hook for £9.1bn in compensation. The carmarker has thus far set [...]
Santander UK profit slides after motor finance reserves balloon

April 29, 2026

Santander UK’s profit took a knock in the first quarter of the year after the bank made another hefty top up to its motor finance provisions. The UK arm of the Spanish banking giant booked a £202m pre-tax profit for the first three months of 2026. This was down 44 per cent from the same [...]
Lloyds shares drop after income upgrade on higher interest rates

April 29, 2026

Lloyds Banking Group has upgraded its income targets for the year as the bank expects to bring in more cash as interest rates remain elevated from the Iran war. The FTSE 100 financial giant – which counts Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland among its subsidiaries – said it expects net interest income to [...]

Wimbledon property market drops ball ahead of Grand Slam

Brentford in talks to host Shakhtar Donetsk Champions League fixtures

New City venue rethinks competitive socialising… again

By: Samuel Norman

All 1491 Articles

Subscribe