Activist Edward Bramson renews attack on Barclays amid Jeffrey Epstein probe February 25, 2020 Activist investor Edward Bramson has renewed his criticism of Barclays after the lender revealed the UK’s financial watchdogs are looking into the relationship between its chief executive and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter to shareholders, Bramson – whose Sherborne Investors is the third-biggest Barclays shareholder – said the probe was “another example of [...]
Is the SFO giving executives an easy ride in bribery cases? February 25, 2020 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has developed a lucrative model of targeting large companies in bribery and corruption cases, striking a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) to suspend criminal charges and extracting a sizeable financial penalty. Last month, the SFO agreed a €991m (£831m) DPA with planemaker Airbus as part of a €3.6bn deal with prosecutors [...]
Barclays prepares to begin hunt for Jes Staley’s replacement February 24, 2020 Barclays is preparing to begin the search for a new chief executive to replace Jes Staley, making it the latest European bank to hunt for new leadership. Staley, who has led the banking giant since 2015, has told colleagues he expects to leave Barclays by the end of next year, according to the Financial Times. [...]
Recruiter Cordant scrambles to raise cash after clash with lenders February 23, 2020 Cordant, one of the largest recruitment agencies in the UK is rushing to raise new cash after coming close to collapse following a row with its lenders. The company, whose clients include Lloyds, Amazon and Tesco, is racing to secure a deal with investors that would end the majority ownership of the Ullmann family, who [...]
Pension funds usher in new voting climate February 21, 2020 Libor settlements, the use of Mervyn King’s eyebrow to fire a chief executive, a boss embroiled in a whistleblowing scandal: Barclays is used to finding itself cast as the City’s guinea pig. Shareaction’s climate change resolution, to be voted on at the bank’s annual general meeting in May, is the latest example. The pressure group [...]
Barclays forgot about the humans in HR February 21, 2020 Barely a day goes by without a think tank, employers’ group or minister talking about the need to improve the productivity or British business, and while this generally conjures up images of factory floors it’s reassuring to know that investment banks are also searching for elusive gains. How else to explain the decision by Barclays [...]
Exclusive: Did someone say chicken? UK preparing to break with EU on food safety at WTO meeting February 20, 2020 Downing Street is considering taking an independent stance on food safety at an upcoming WTO summit, in yet another breach of transition rules within the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. The stage will be set when the US formally welcomes the UK as an independent member of the WTO during a meeting about sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) [...]
Barclays scraps Big Brother-style spyware on staff computers February 20, 2020 Barclays has scrapped the use of spyware software that tracked time employees spent at their desks, the day after City A.M. revealed the banking giant was using the software at its London headquarters. The lender had been criticised by HR experts and privacy campaigners for its use of the technology, which was introduced in a pilot scheme [...]
PPI, profit drop, and a mixed 2020: Five takeaways from Lloyds’ results February 20, 2020 Lloyds reported a 26 per cent drop in annual profit on Thursday, with Britain’s largest domestic lender hit by a rise in bad debts and billions of pounds of customer compensation payout. Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said the results demonstrated a “solid financial performance in a challenging external market”, but analysts have described them as [...]
A quarter of FTSE companies faced shareholder dissent in 2019 February 20, 2020 Investors cranked up the pressure on British companies last year, with a quarter of firms on the FTSE All-Share hit by shareholder dissent, according to new figures. Some 158 of the 641 firms on the index experienced significant investor rebellions in 2019, with executive pay and the re-election of directors among shareholders’ biggest concerns, according [...]