Phones 4u sells off UK’s biggest mobile phone insurer for $160m September 5, 2013 HIGH STREET retailer Phones 4u yesterday dialled up a £100m deal to sell the UK’s biggest mobile insurer to a Wall Street-listed insurance giant. The phone shop’s parent company, Phones 4u Finance, will sell Crewe-based Lifestyle Services Group (LSG) to Assurant for $160m (£107m) after being approached by Assurant to buy the business earlier this [...]
Icap closes in on deal to end probe over Libor allegations September 5, 2013 BROKER DEALER ICAP is believed to be in advanced talks with US and British regulators over a deal to end an investigation into its alleged role in the manipulation of benchmark interest rates. According to people familiar with the negotiations, an agreement with the US Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the [...]
Barclays sets date for £5.8bn rights issue September 4, 2013 THE BIGGEST bank fundraising round since the financial crisis will take place on 13 September, Barclays announced yesterday. The lender is raising £5.8bn in a major rights issue, shoring up its capital position after regulators argued the bank needed to improve its leverage ratio. Existing shareholders will get the first chance to buy as they [...]
Banks’ £500,000 compensation bill for just 10 interest rate swaps September 4, 2013 BRITAIN’S biggest banks have paid compensation on just 10 cases of interest rate swap mis-selling so far, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed yesterday. The lenders have taken on 2,800 staff to review more than 30,000 cases, which often involve small firms who wanted protection against interest rate rises. However sometimes they had no choice whether [...]
Exclusive: Utilities firms to roll out mobile payments via bank app Zapp September 4, 2013 MAJOR utilities firms will this month announce plans for consumers to pay bills using new mobile app Zapp, City A.M. understands, in a new drive to consolidate a fragmented industry. From next summer customers will receive bills with QR codes attached, which they can scan to pay the bills with the app. Zapp, set up by [...]
Bullish rights issue statement from Barclays September 4, 2013 BANKING giant Barclays published a rather bullish announcement yesterday, when it released a statement on its latest rights issue. Rather than linking to the Barclays website, all the links appearing to direct to Barclays, in fact sent readers to a site called Hereford.com, an Idaho-based company that sells bull semen. A Barclays spinner was tight-lipped [...]
Cowgate: “Bullish” announcement from Barclays September 4, 2013 The Barclays rights issue announcement is turning some heads (release). Rather than linking to the Barclays website, all links to Barclays actually direct to Hereford, a site that sells bull semen. A Barclays spinner told City A.M. "I'm absolutely not saying anything more on Cowgate". An updated release has now been issued, but the old [...]
Barclays will start £5.8bn rights issue on 13 September September 4, 2013 Bank Barclays has announced that its £5.8bn rights issue is expected to take place of 13 September (release). It is anticipated that the record time for Ordinary Shareholders' entitlement to participate in the Rights Issue shall be the close of business (London time) on 13 September 2013. As a result (and as outlined in the [...]
PPI drives bank complaints to a new record high September 3, 2013 PAYMENT protection insurance (PPI) complaints have jumped to a new record high, the Financial Ombudsman Service said yesterday. However, the tide has showed some signs of slowing, with banks like Barclays recording a fall in the number of referrals to the official agency. Total financial complaints jumped to 327,035 in the six months from January [...]
Barclays to sell retail banking arm in the UAE September 3, 2013 BARCLAYS’ review of retail operations in Dubai has found they do not generate sufficient returns to remain part of the group and so will be sold. The lender reviewed all of its business units earlier this year to see how they fit into its group, and repeated the process after the Bank of England said [...]