New Barclays much like the old Barclays, a hard pill to swallow for GlaxoSmithKline and Wilson’s next Legal & General move March 3, 2016 John McFarlane is a man fond of bold actions and even bolder words. The Barclays chairman confidently predicted last July that the bank’s shares – then worth 260p – would double within three years. After this week, though, even returning to the anaemic level of last summer looks a lofty ambition. “Investors” and “long-suffering” have become inseparable [...]
City Moves for 3 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs March 3, 2016 Watson Day Chartered surveyor firm Watson Day has appointed Richard Turnill as a partner. He joins partners Nick Threlfall, Ian Gutteridge, Julian Scannell and Kevin Dempster, who founded Watson Day in 1989. Richard qualified as a chartered surveyor in 2007, following a graduate position at Cluttons. In 2009 Richard joined Glenny’s south east London and [...]
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered have lost billions since the start of the year – the British economy needs a vibrant banking sector March 3, 2016 Spare a thought for Britain's banks. Between them, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered have lost almost £40bn in value since the start of the year. A savage cocktail of market volatility, increased costs, low interest rates, fines, regulatory burdens and sluggish global growth is taking its toll. In a dramatic illustration of the [...]
Cyber crime going underreported as businesses cough up ransoms – often in bitcoin – for hackers to keep their data safe March 3, 2016 Businesses are paying out hefty cash ransoms to cyber criminals as they scramble to prevent online bandits from releasing large caches of their customers’ stolen personal data. Experts believe that several big firms have shelled out to hackers, often in the form of bitcoin, in order to save face and stop the data leaks going [...]
Barclays’ share price fall and profit losses and Sports Direct’s looming FTSE demotion remind us of the lasting impact of corporate failings March 2, 2016 Barclays has hit the headlines again with news of a dramatic fall in share prices and profit losses. Like many of the world’s big banks, the organisation has been hampered by sins of the past, which have eroded employee and consumer trust. Its response has been one of drastic internal restructuring, and assertions of a new approach [...]
Will Barclays’s restructuring programme actually improve prospects for the bank? March 2, 2016 Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Yes. Jes Staley, the new boss of Barclays, clearly takes the view that big is not necessarily beautiful when it comes to banking operations. The sale of the group’s African business and accelerated wind-down of non-core assets push Barclays further along the path of becoming a simplified [...]
New Barclays chief executive Jes Staley gets a frosty reception in the City as investors reject his case for slashing dividends, sending share price down more than 10 per cent March 2, 2016 New Barclays boss Jes Staley received a frosty reception in the City yesterday, as investors rejected his case for slashing dividends, sending the bank’s share price down by more than 10 per cent and wiping £2.3bn off its market value. Investors recoiled when Barclays said it planned on paying a dividend of 3p for this year [...]
High street banks plan to help Treasury offload £17bn of Bradford and Bingley loans March 1, 2016 Britain’s largest high street banks are planning to help the Treasury offload £17bn of Bradford and Bingley (B&B) loans. The proposal would see Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide and Santander guarantee around £17bn of financing to the purchasers of the loans. It emerged at the beginning of this year that a sizeable part [...]
Barclays share price drops and Ashtead Group falls but FTSE 100 index rises as London Stock Exchange and Direct Line jump March 1, 2016 After a frankly uneventful day yesterday, the FTSE 100 index bounced higher today despite the latest PMI data showed China's manufacturing sector shrinking. The UK's blue-chip index rose 0.92 per cent to 6,152 points, as investors contemplated a corporate results onslaught. Good news was to be found with the London Stock Exchange Group, which jumped 7.17 per cent [...]
Barclays shares suspended from trading after falling 11 per cent March 1, 2016 Trading in Barclays was suspended this morning after the bank's share price plummeted more than eight per cent, following another dismal set of results and news of a major restructure. Barclays' share price tumbled 11 per cent in mid-morning trading, before being halted briefly. Trading was resumed shortly afterwards, but the share price was still down around 10.6 [...]