By: Samuel Norman

City Reporter Samuel is a City Reporter for City AM covering banking, fintech and more across the City. He is a gold-standard NCTJ qualified journalist who's previously worked at the Daily Mail and Sky News. He can be contacted at samuel.norman@cityam.com and posts at x.com/samnormanwrites.

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Labour’s National Wealth Fund slammed for ‘completely misleading’ rebrand

March 25, 2025

The government has been accused of “gaslighting the British public” over its National Wealth Fund as the Treasury committee announced on Monday it had launched an inquiry into the new body. Originally a fixture of Labour’s 2024 manifesto – the National Wealth Fund was to consolidate the British Business Bank and the UK Infrastructure Bank, [...]
Small businesses at ‘breaking point’ ahead of Spring Statement

March 24, 2025

Small businesses are at “breaking point” just days ahead of Rachel Reeves‘ Spring Statement, an insurance boss has warned. Almost one in five small business owners have said they will be forced out of business within a year due to bleak economic conditions, according to data from Simply Business. As many fear the increasing costs [...]
Reeves told to use Spring Statement to fix ‘unintended consequences’ of Budget

March 24, 2025

Rachel Reeves must use the Spring Statement to fix the “unintended consequences” of her Autumn Budget, the boss of a tax services firm has said. Tom Shave, President of the Europe and Asia-Pacific division at Ryan, has urged the Chancellor to use Wednesday’s update to provide businesses under economic pressure necessary support. Shave anticipated Reeves’ [...]
Banks turn to AI to lead fraud prevention efforts

March 23, 2025

As Britain’s biggest banks scale up their technology, lenders are turning to AI to fight fraud, a new report has found. NTT Data’s ‘Banking Trends 2025’ report found over half of UK banks thought generative AI was key to fraud prevention. Lenders have been urged to up their consumer protection abilities after Chair of the [...]
Analysts downgrade Close Brothers’ ‘beaten up’ shares

March 21, 2025

Analysts have said Close Brothers shares are worth 340p – a 20p downgrade from their previous price target. The lender suffered a profit hit in its half-year results, plunging to a £104m loss. A £165m provision for motor finance payouts drove the bank’s woes, with shares falling as much as 24 per cent on Tuesday. [...]
Top City analyst cloned in AI deepfake scam

March 21, 2025

Michael Hewson – one of the City’s most respected market analysts – was cloned as part of an AI-powered social media scam. A fake video using AI to pose as the host of the Good Money Guide Podcast circulated on Facebook and Instagram this week, attempting to lure users into joining a Whatsapp group. The [...]
Will London take New York’s fintech crown?

March 21, 2025

According to Z/Yen’s 37th Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 37), the Square Mile is snapping at the heels of the Big Apple.
TSB’s new boss takes helm amidst parent company’s uncertainty

March 21, 2025

UK retail bank TSB announced on Friday that Marc Armengol had taken over as its new chief executive officer. Armengol, who previously served as corporate strategy director at the lender, was tapped for the role in November 2024. His appointment follows the retirement of former boss Robin Bulloch. Before joining TSB, Armengol worked at the [...]
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). [...]

The Magnificent 7 in 2025 – and the survival of the richest

Reading owner Rob Couhig considers selling training ground to raise funds

Food trends 2026: What Londoners will eat in the new year

By: Samuel Norman

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