Banks promise to help 1m who lack an account with new offering to include debit cards and online access Britain's biggest nine bank account providers today promised to give better access to adults who did not have a current account. Roughly 1.3m Britons are unbanked for a range of reasons, including lacking a steady income. However, lacking an account makes it harder to receive a regular income, or to pay vital bills. [...]
Stressing out: Britain’s lenders will be ticked off by the Bank of England as new tests bite If you happen to stroll down to Threadneedle Street in the early hours of tomorrow morning and find a hive of activity do not be alarmed – it’s just the start of the Bank of England’s inaugural stress tests results. While most of London slumbers at 5am, prudential regulation authority (PRA) officials will be locked [...]
UK firms hit by £3.1bn bill from tide of red tape RED TAPE has cost British firms an extra £3.1bn over the course of this parliament, despite government plans to slash the cost of regulation, think tank Reform said today. The auto enrolment pensions changes had cost £2.7bn, while the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers’ Directive had cost £1.2bn, Reform said. By contrast, the biggest saving [...]
Santander hires Baroness Vadera as UK chairman December 14, 2014 Baroness Vadera will replace Lord Burns as Santander’s UK chairman in March, the Spanish bank announced on Friday. She will join the board as joint deputy chairman in January, before taking the top post in March. Her appointment marks a complete change at the top of the UK arm of the group. Ex-chief [...]
Dream debut as Lending Club valuation soars after IPO in boost to British crowdfunding December 11, 2014 Lending Club’s valuation soared to more than $8bn yesterday as shares rocketed as much as 60 per cent on their first day of trading. The world’s biggest peer-to-peer lender floated in New York, and could kick-start a new tech boom – with British crowdfunding firms getting a big boost from the intense investor interest. [...]
Barclays among 10 banks fined for abusing research to win deals December 11, 2014 TEN GLOBAL banks were fined a total of $43.5m (£27.7m) by US regulators yesterday for their attempts to misuse analysts’ research to gain lucrative jobs on Toys R Us’ attempted stock market flotation in 2010. Analysts’ research is supposed to be a neutral assessment of a floating stock’s value. But the Financial Industry Regulation Authority (Finra) said [...]
Bank of England to publish transcripts from financial crisis era December 11, 2014 City economists will gain an unprecedented level of insight into the Bank of England’s decision-making process, as Mark Carney yesterday agreed to publish more information than ever. Detailed transcripts of policymakers’ discussions at the height of the financial crisis will be published, with some redactions to cover sensitive areas. And in future, transcripts [...]
Pensioners get help to find best annuity deals December 11, 2014 PENSIONERS are failing to shop around for the best annuities deal and so are missing out on income in their retirement, the City watchdog found in a report published yesterday. Annuities themselves could offer good value to consumers, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said, as long as they sought out a good deal. To rectify this [...]
VTB Capital promotes its finance boss Nick Hutt to chief executive December 11, 2014 INVESTMENT firm VTB Capital yesterday formally appointed Nick Hutt as its chief executive, five months after giving him the role on an interim basis. Hutt has worked at VTB Capital since 2008, when he joined to head up its international finance team. He then became chief finance officer, and was appointed interim chief executive in [...]
Investec issues apology to Benjamin Lawsky after analyst Ian Gordon’s Eric Garner gaffe December 10, 2014 South African bank Investec gave US regulator Benjamin Lawsky a grovelling apology last night, after one of its analysts compared Lawsky’s actions against Standard Chartered to the treatment of Eric Garner – an unarmed black man who died at the hands of police officers in America. At a time of inflamed tensions over police behaviour in the [...]
