Drink to that: Young’s pub chain hails profit growth and hikes dividend May 23, 2019 Pub group Young’s hailed robust profit and revenue growth in its latest financial year today, but warned investors of a “tough start” to 2019 after the World Cup fuelled a strong summer in 2018. Read more: City Pub Group cheers investors with sales rise as expansion continues The figures Profit before tax climbed 5.1 per [...]
City Moves for 23 May – Who’s switching jobs at Together, Weightmans and Openfin? May 23, 2019 Today's City Moves includes Together, Weightmans and Openfin. Together Specialist lender Together, which has a loan book of more than £3.74bn, has hired banking heavyweight Simon Raine as an advisor to its board. Simon – who has more than 35 years’ experience in financial services – joins from Handelsbanken, where he helped to develop its [...]
UK inflation rises above two per cent target as energy costs increase May 22, 2019 The UK’s core inflation rate climbed to 2.1 per cent in April, as rising energy costs pushed up by the higher Ofgem price cap fed into dearer prices in the economy, official statistics have revealed. Read more: UK economy bounces back, but is growth just a ‘flash in the pan’? Traditionally, inflation above the Bank [...]
Sterling falls below $1.27 for first time since early January as Brexit fears intensify May 21, 2019 Sterling has fallen below $1.27 for the first time since the beginning of the year as Brexit fears intensify. It comes as Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to unveil her “new and improved” Brexit plan to her Cabinet this afternoon in a bid to pass a deal through parliament at the fourth time of asking. [...]
Metro Bank shares surge after £375m emergency capital raise following loans blunder May 17, 2019 Shares in Metro Bank soared this morning after it successfully raised £375m of extra capital as investors backed the challenger bank following a major loans blunder. Read more: Metro Bank raises £375m of capital hours after launching share placing The embattled bank raised more than its target amount of £350m just hours after launching a [...]
Bank of England deputy recommends ‘British approach’ to post-Brexit financial regulation May 16, 2019 Britain's financial regulations should be just as strict following Brexit, but more power should be handed to regulatory bodies to create “dynamic” rules, Sam Woods, a deputy governor of the Bank of England, has said. Read more: EU officials mulling post-Brexit financial reforms Woods, who is also chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), [...]
Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland among five banks hit with €1bn fine for forex rigging May 16, 2019 The EU Commission has fined five banks €1.07bn (£940m) for rigging foreign exchange markets for 11 currencies, it announced today. Competition regulators fined Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Citigroup, JP Morgan and MUFG Bank, while UBS was not fined as it revealed the existence of the rigging to the regulator. In the first [...]
Cyber security solutions that are only 95 per cent effective are just not good enough anymore May 16, 2019 The cyber security industry is failing businesses. Cyber criminals are constantly evolving and evading the market’s most sophisticated detection-based security solutions, with government figures showing that 32 per cent of UK businesses have faced a cyber attack or data breach in the past year. Most security solutions take a “best endeavour” approach to defending against [...]
Just Group shares slide after it reveals sales plunge May 16, 2019 Just Group shares fell more than seven per cent this morning after it revealed a plunge in sales. The retirement group said retirement income sales for the three months to 31 March were 59 per cent lower than for the previous quarter, which it said was a result of a lower level of completed defined [...]
Bank of England warned prosecutors against charging Barclays over controversial Qatar payments May 15, 2019 The Bank of England warned fraud prosecutors against charging Barclays over Qatar payments made at the height of the financial crisis, it has emerged. The Bank’s top regulator Sam Woods told the Serious Fraud Office in 2017 that criminal charges could pose a threat to Barclays’ safety and soundness, the Financial Times reported. Woods, [...]