All eyes on dividends: What to expect from Barclays and Natwest this week February 16, 2021 Barclays and Natwest will be the first of the major high street banks to report full year results this week. It has been a difficult 12 months with Brexit weighing on sentiment in addition to the fallout from the pandemic. All eyes will be on dividend payments after the Prudential Regulation Authority effectively banned payouts [...]
City counts the cost of Brexit but eyes turn to new global opportunities February 16, 2021 As temperatures hit record lows in February, parts of London’s financial markets are feeling the cold as consequences of Brexit bed in. The much reported toppling of London as the continent’s top share-trading hub in January is a symbolic moment more than a significant economic shift, but it plays into a wider discussion about the [...]
Some City investors are starting to get nervous about inflation February 16, 2021 The UK will release new inflation data later this week, but if recent investor comments and analyst notes are anything to go by, it is becoming increasingly clear that some within the investment community are starting to get nervous about inflation. According to last month’s figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s annual [...]
Before the Bell: Rising recovery optimism keeps markets buoyant February 16, 2021 With US markets closed for President’s Day yesterday, they will have some significant catching up to do after yesterday’s stellar European session, when they return from their long weekend later today. Having seen the Nikkei225 push above 30,000 for the first time since 1990, a move that continued in Asia this morning, European markets [...]
Ranked: Monzo tops list of best UK banks as digital services thrive February 15, 2021 Digital fintechs Monzo and First Direct provide better service to customers than traditional banks, according to a recent survey. Ipsos MORI conducted a review of around 1,000 customers from each of the 19 biggest personal current account providers in the UK to rank the best and worst banks. The findings are designed to compare the [...]
The Week Ahead: Barclays, Natwest, retail sales, public borrowing February 15, 2021 City A.M. takes a look at some of this week’s market-shaping events. Barclays – Full year results (Thursday) The past 12 months have been difficult ones for banks in general, but UK banks have underperformed relative to their peers, Hewson said, with the unknowns of what a final Brexit deal might look like also weighing [...]
City of London’s biggest competition post-Brexit will not be EU, says Raab February 14, 2021 The UK’s financial services industry will face its biggest post-Brexit competition from Asia and the US, according to foreign secretary Dominic Raab. Raab said EU financial capitals may “nick a bit of business here and there from the City”, but that they will not challenge London’s status as Europe’s global financial capital. It comes as Amsterdam [...]
EU financial services chief warns of long road ahead for UK-EU equivalence deal February 12, 2021 The EU’s financial services chief has warned the UK that “there cannot be equivalence and wide divergence” in financial regulation as the battle over the City’s future relationship with the bloc heats up. Mairead McGuinness also confirmed fears held by many in the City that the EU would demand to know the UK’s future regulatory [...]
FTSE 100 trades flat as banks lead the biggest fallers February 11, 2021 The FTSE 100 is trading flat this afternoon after the excitement of corporate earnings wore off. Investors had initially been boosted by rose by Astrazeneca’s upbeat quarterly results, which is now trading up 0.8 per cent. Banks are proving to be a drag on the FTSE this afternon which slipped to trade down 0.04 per [...]
London experiences massive drop in Euro swaps trading post-Brexit February 11, 2021 Trading in euro-denominated swaps has dropped by nearly 30 per cent in London since the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December, with trade primarily shifting to New York, Amsterdam and Paris. According to new data from financial research company IHS Markit, published earlier today, euro swaps trading in the City of London [...]