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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Metro Bank shares dip after SME lending pivot sees profit balloon

March 4, 2026

Metro Bank has swung back into profit as the firm’s pivot into small business lending led to a bump in revenue. The FTSE 250 lender returned to profitability with a pre-tax profit of just north of £98m – a 15-year high and major clawback from losses of £14m last year. The swing came as Metro [...]
City watchdog plots streamlined motor finance scheme after backlash

March 4, 2026

The UK’s financial watchdog is looking to “streamline” its long-anticipated motor finance compensation scheme following widespread backlash across the industry. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) provided a fresh update to markets on Wednesday, stating it was considering over 1,000 responses to its proposals for the industry-wide redress scheme. It added “if” it was to proceed [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks inch back up; UK faces energy bills warning

March 4, 2026

Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Yesterday, Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement. The Chancellor wheeled out new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility that cut growth for 2026 but – albeit modestly – upgraded it for the years to come. But forecasts were quickly labelled out of date by [...]
Blackstone’s private credit fund hands investors record redemptions

March 3, 2026

The world’s largest alternative asset manager is allowing investors to pull a record amount of cash from its flagship private credit fund as anxiety continues to ripple through the trillion-dollar industry. Blackstone will permit investors to redeem 7.9 per cent of shares from the fund – the equivalent to a whopping $3.8bn. The financial giant [...]
UK gas prices spike over 90 per cent amid US-Iran war

March 3, 2026

Gas prices in the UK have nearly doubled as the war between US and Iran ramped up since the weekend. The price of UK wholesale gas prices – which reflect the costs energy suppliers pay to producers for natural gas before selling to household and businesses – has rocketed by 93 per cent in just [...]
Spring Statement Live: UK growth cut for 2026 but Reeves touts future forecasts

March 3, 2026

Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement today, as the Office for Budget Responsibility published its updated forecasts for the years ahead. The Chancellor was handed quite a hefty blow with the UK’s growth estimate for 2026 slashed to 1.1 per cent from 1.4 per cent the year prior. [...]
Meet Reeves’ outsider tasked with steering the City to growth

March 3, 2026

The City has rolled out the red carpet for the banking watchdog’s new chief after Katharine Braddick, a seasoned veteran of the financial trenches, was named on Friday as the successor to Sam Woods. For a cool £314,000 a year, she’s set to take on the brief of steering the UK’s banking sector. Chancellor Rachel [...]
Dow Jones slides as FTSE 100 extends losses amid Iran strikes

March 2, 2026

Wall Street joined Europe as markets opened on Monday with losses spread across the board as tensions escalated across the Middle East. The Dow Jones dropped nearly one per cent on open to 48,534.58 whilst the S&P 500 shed around 0.7 per cent to 6,828.47. The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 0.7 per cent to 22,505.32. In [...]
Ex Goldman chief: I smell another financial crisis

March 2, 2026

Goldman Sachs’ top boss throughout the 2008 financial crisis has sounded the alarm that the global economy was drawing closer to another crash. Billionaire investment banker Lloyd Blankfein, who served at the helm of Goldman from 2006 until 2018, said: “I don’t feel the storm, but the horses are starting to whinny in the corral.” [...]
Santander names new TSB boss ahead of takeover

March 2, 2026

Santander has named the new top boss of TSB Bank as the firm gears up for its blockbuster takeover of the high street unit. The Spanish-headquarted banking giant – which beat out its peers to snap up TSB for £2.6bn last July – appointed Nicola Bannister as the new chief executive of TSB. Bannister ascends [...]

Co-Op and Next among firms launching workplace savings scheme to boost workers’ emergency fund

Children as young as 14 are being targeted by unregulated gambling firms on social media

Old Pulteney releases 50-year-old whisky for 200th anniversary

By: Samuel Norman

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