Motor finance war of words heats up as City watchdog blasts law firm’s motives July 8, 2026 A blistering war of words has broken out between the City watchdog and the firms leading the consumer legal challenge to its £9bn motor finance scheme. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has urged the Upper Tribunal to throw out the case entirely as it slammed Courmacs Legal and its client Consumer Voice, for a serious [...]
PwC joins the Canary Wharf crowd in major property shake-up July 2, 2026 Big Four giant PwC has picked Canary Wharf for its new UK office, and is set to swallow up 350,000 sq ft in the area in the latest boost to the docklands financial hub. The firm has chosen One Eden in Canary Wharf to be its new office address, a building formerly known as 33 Canada [...]
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and NatWest among the first banks in the world to adopt new Swift framework for enhanced international consumer payments July 2, 2026 Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest will be among the first financial institutions in the world to go live with a new global initiative transforming the experience for people sending and receiving international transfers.
Halifax ends 173-year high street run as Lloyds ditches branding July 1, 2026 Lloyds Banking Group is set to ditch its Halifax brand in a move that will end the retail bank’s 173-year run on the high street. The FTSE 100 titan – whose subsidiaries also include Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows – said on Wednesday it would rebrand Halifax under the central moniker of Lloyds. Lloyds [...]
Canary Wharf’s reinvention is a triumph July 1, 2026 Seven years ago, almost to the day, I found myself leaning backwards over the ledge at the very top of the Barclays tower in Canary Wharf. I exchanged a glance with the then Lord Mayor, Peter Estlin (a former Barclays exec, incidentally) to my left before pushing off like a commando and conducting a flawless, [...]
UK banks’ digital ID bid is a game of optics – and the odds are not in their favour July 1, 2026 A digital ID row has dominated headlines in the last year, and banks are set to join the row. In this week’s column, Samuel Norman takes a look at what they might be in for. Britain’s banks have voluntarily thrown themselves into one of the most toxic culture wars of the decade. Few subjects evoke [...]
City launches new Digital ID framework against AI fraud June 30, 2026 The City of London Corporation has unveiled plans for a new digital identity framework it claims could unlock more than £5bn for the UK economy, as policymakers and the financial sector race to tackle increasingly sophisticated AI-enabled fraud. A blueprint published on Tuesday proposes a “Digital Verification Orchestrator”, or DVO – a system set to [...]
Barclays splashes £750m on Canary Wharf base in ‘strong endorsement’ of London June 30, 2026 Barclays has taken control of its global headquarters based out of Canary Wharf in a £750m deal hailed as a “strong endorsement” of the financial district and the capital itself. The blue-chip lender has entered a long-term leasehold interest agreement with Canary Wharf Group that grants the bank to use the property – based at [...]
As it happened: Stocks jump on defence and metals boost; Oil on track to shed a fifth on US-Iran peace hopes June 30, 2026 Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Oil’s speed of decline has taken a hit this week as investors were forced to pause at the renewal of strike action between the US and Iran. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – was steadying above $73 per barrel, holding onto some of the [...]
Barclays and Lloyds join banking sector plan for digital ID June 25, 2026 Barclays and Lloyds are among a group of top UK lenders working on a plan that would see customers able to use digital identification tools in their banking app. The collective of banks – which also includes HSBC, Nationwide, Natwest and Santander – are working with industry body UK Finance on a process where users’ [...]