Bankers prepare for job losses as optimism falls to lows not seen since the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis April 4, 2016 British bankers are bracing themselves for the largest round of job cuts since the height of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis as banks struggle to find their way back to profitability and optimism over future earnings shrinks. Bankers fear the axe is set to fall mostly on bloated back office operations, IT departments and in [...]
Libor scandal round 3: It’s crunch time for the UK’s fraud squad as it heads to court for the third UK Libor trial April 3, 2016 The Serious Fraud Office is gearing up for a crunch trial today as it heads to court in the latest instalment of the Libor rigging saga. The under-pressure fraud squad's war on financial misconduct will continue at Southwark Crown Court, with the trial of five former Barclays bankers accused of US-dollar pegged Libor rigging. The SFO will [...]
Cybersecurity: The steps every board member and C-suite professional should be taking now April 1, 2016 Cybercrime is as natural and irresistible a force of digital socioeconomic life as earthquakes are to the physical world. Left unaddressed, vulnerabilities in cybersecurity can hamper the pace of digital innovation, batter shareholder confidence and public trust, and ultimately open the ground beneath your feet, swallowing up your organisation. Overcoming the threat boils down to [...]
Co-op Bank kicks off search for new boss to replace Niall Booker, update expected with tomorrow’s results March 31, 2016 The troubled Co-op Bank has begun its search for a replacement for its outgoing chief executive Niall Booker, with top bankers at Barclays and Santander already approached for the role. Stephen Jones, who stepped down as Santander UK's chief financial officer several months ago, and at least one internal candidate are thought to have been shortlisted. [...]
Over half of over 50s depending on the new state pension to keep them afloat in their retirement March 31, 2016 Whether it's warnings from Waspi about women's state pension age or mutterings from MPs about how complicated the new state pension is, there's a lot of doubt floating about over what the state pension will look like in the future. However, that hasn't stopped some soon to be retirees treating it as the cornerstone of [...]
City Moves for 31 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs March 31, 2016 Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking has appointed Kelvin Aston as head of its industrial manufacturing business, based in the bank’s London head office. Kelvin has been an executive director involved in the industrial sector for the past 20 years and has over 35 years’ experience within banking, initially at Barclays [...]
Five reasons to think twice before investing in buy-to-let March 31, 2016 You hear it all the time. A relative or a friend has just inherited some money. They want to make it work for them. So they make what seems like an ironclad financial decision: they invest in buy-to-let. Why is this so common? After all, property ownership is a relatively recent trend. Well, rental properties [...]
New Barclays/Opinium report finds millennials are most worried about being shown up by tech-savvy younger colleagues March 31, 2016 One in three workers between the ages of 18 and 34 are worried about being shown up by even younger colleagues, according to a new report out today from Barclays on digital skills. According to the report, including surveys conducted by Opinium,18-34 year-olds are the age group that is most worried about whether they are [...]
Complaints to financial services firms dropped in second half of 2015 March 30, 2016 People were much happier with their financial products in the latter half of last year, or, at the very least, they were quieter about any problems they had. The number of complaints to financial services firms inched down in the last six months of 2015, mainly driven by a drop in grievances over savings accounts, figures [...]
Bank of England stress tests: Berenberg warns Lloyds Banking Group could be hit hard by 2016 stress tests while Standard Chartered and HSBC could fare better than in recent years March 30, 2016 Lloyds Banking Group is "particularly vulnerable to larger stress test losses" in 2016 compared to Britain's other big banks, analysts at Berenberg have warned. The Bank published its plans yesterday for this year’s stress test of Britain’s biggest banks, saying it would test to see how lenders would fare in a scenario where global growth falls 1.9 [...]