Analyst Views: What did you make of TalkTalk’s interim management statement? July 23, 2014 MAURICE PATRICK | BARCLAYS TalkTalk continues to make progress towards its medium term goals, with another quarter of steady customer additions, upselling to the existing base driving revenues up three per cent and churn 0.1 percentage point lower to 1.4 per cent. Our estimates are broadly unchanged. CARL MURDOCK-SMITH | JP MORGAN CAZENOVE Churn reduction [...]
Exclusive: RBS is big loser of seven-day switching while Santander wins customers July 22, 2014 RBS is losing the battle for banking customers, City A.M. can reveal, shedding 171,400 customers through the seven-day switching system and gaining just 95,000 current account customers. Overall, RBS and NatWest have lost a net 76,200 through the system since it was launched last September, according to City A.M. calculations based on figures from survey firm [...]
Lazy small firms blamed for bad banking market July 21, 2014 BRITAIN’S small firms have to try harder to push their banks to work for them, and be prepared to walk away if they do not, Britain’s competition chief said yesterday. Banks have been hit by waves of complaints from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) even since before the financial crisis. But only a tiny proportion [...]
Barclays’ clients lead charge out of dark pools July 21, 2014 THE NUMBER of shares traded in Barclays’ dark pool collapsed by more than half last week, industry data showed yesterday, as clients flee the private trading platform. The bank is facing allegations in the US that it misled clients trading on the LX platform, leading to a 66 per cent fall in shares traded on the site. [...]
Libor accused to wait until 2016 for fraud squad’s trial to begin July 21, 2014 THE SIX bankers accused of attempting to fiddle interest rate benchmark Libor will not know their fates for at least another two years, after a court hearing yesterday. The scandal broke more than two years ago when Barclays was fined over claims its staff tried to manipulate the rate. And six of its workers have been [...]
City Moves for 22 July 2014 | Who’s switching jobs July 21, 2014 PwC George Stylianides has been appointed leader of PwC’s financial services risk and regulation practice. He is taking over from Julie Coates, who is returning to Australia after four years in the UK. Stylianides has over 25 years’ experience working in financial institutions. Natixis Global Asset Management The asset manager has announced four appointments to [...]
Fraud squad launches criminal probe into the UK’s foreign exchange market July 21, 2014 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has opened a full-blown criminal investigation into alleged price rigging in the UK's £3tn-a-day foreign exchange (forex) market, the regulator confirmed today. The probe will look at "fraudulent conduct in the foreign exchange market", according to an SFO statement. The claims centre around allegations that traders would manipulate the flow [...]
Exclusive: Barclays wants time to probe dark pool claims July 21, 2014 BARCLAYS may be forced to ask the US authorities for more time to look into allegations it misled investors using its dark pool trading platform, City A.M. understands. The British bank was accused last month of telling clients the private trading facility was safe from predatory operators like high frequency traders – but it is [...]
Silver for Barclays beach volleyball team as the City battles it out in the sunshine July 21, 2014 What better time to enjoy a corporate volleyball mash-up than the hottest day of the year? Friday saw teams from the likes of Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Linklaters and Fitch Ratings go up against each other on Action for Kids’ beach volleyball courts but victory was saved for the returning champions Reebok [...]
City Moves for 21 July 2014 | Who’s switching jobs July 21, 2014 Laing O’Rourke The construction firm has announced the appointment of Paul Sheffield as managing director of its Europe hub. He joins after 31 years at Kier, where he was most recently chief executive. Sheffield is a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. UBS Global Asset Management James Finch has been appointed head of global [...]