Leading challenger banks in advanced talks about £1.6bn merger March 9, 2019 OneSavings Bank and Charter Court Financial Services Group are in advanced talks about a merger that would create a lender worth more than £1.6bn Discussions have been ongoing for a number of months between two of Britain's biggest challenger banks and an announcement could confirm a deal within the next fortnight, according to Sky News. Read [...]
Bank of England takes action over Visa card payment outage March 8, 2019 The Bank of England (BoE) has taken action against Visa following an outage last year that caused more than 2m card transactions to fail. The BoE has announced supervisory action to ensure that Visa Europe enforces the recommendations made following an independent review by EY in the wake of the incident. Read more: TSB online [...]
UK told to come up with ‘acceptable’ backstop solutions as Brexit deadline looms March 7, 2019 The government is under pressure from the EU to urgently find solutions to break the Brexit impasse by tomorrow. EU leaders have asked the UK to submit "acceptable" proposals by Friday to break the deadlock over the Irish backstop, which remains the main obstacle to the two sides coming to mutual agreement. Read more: Bank [...]
Bank of England more likely to cut interest rates after no-deal Brexit, policymaker says March 7, 2019 The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee would be more likely to cut interest rates in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to rate-setter Silvana Tenreyro. Tenreyro’s comments adds further clues as to the direction of travel for interest rates if Britain leaves the EU without a deal. Read more: Brexit uncertainty costs UK [...]
Brexit-backing Tories are running out of road March 6, 2019 Next week, MPs will be asked to vote (again) on the government's proposed Brexit deal. While Theresa May's team attempts to woo Labour MPs with offers of cash for poor areas and commitments on workers' rights, the attorney general and Brexit secretary have been in Brussels, frantically trying to win concessions on the thorny Irish [...]
OECD slashes global growth forecasts and warns of no-deal Brexit recession March 6, 2019 Global growth predictions were slashed today as a major economic body warned that a no-deal Brexit would see Britain return to recession. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut predictions for the UK’s growth to 0.8 per cent in 2019 and 0.9 per cent in 2020. Read more: EU faces the biggest risks [...]
Five fintech trends to watch in 2019 March 6, 2019 There’s no shortage of stories on how tech breakthroughs will transform financial services, from changing the way we interact with our personal finances to threatening entire banking institutions with disruption. It can be difficult to predict exactly what this landscape will look like in the next few years, but most seem to agree that the [...]
UK financial system ready for no-deal Brexit but EU faces risks due to ‘lack of action’, Bank of England warns March 5, 2019 The UK’s financial system is prepared for a no-deal Brexit but EU businesses and households could be at risk due to a “lack of action” from Brussels, according to the Bank of England. The Bank said the UK’s banking system was strong enough to deal with the economic shock of leaving the EU without a [...]
UK business bank borrowing surges in January March 1, 2019 UK businesses significantly increased their borrowing from banks in January driven by a surge of merger and acquisition activity, figures show. Borrowing by UK businesses increased by £9.2bn in January, with £5.3bn lent by banks, according to the Bank of England's monthly borrowing statistics. Read more: Brexit uncertainty costs UK £800m a week The increase in [...]
Editor’s Notes: Let’s hear it from the New Democrats and Reagan Republicans March 1, 2019 Back in 2015, I was convinced the UK was heading for another hung parliament. The following year I expected a comfortable Remain victory in the EU referendum. A few months later, turning to the US, I was certain that Hillary Clinton would trounce Donald Trump at the ballot box. Then, just to compound things, I [...]