Energy supplier SSE reports profits drop amid “intense” competition May 18, 2016 Energy supplier SSE has seen its profits drop amid “intense retail market competition”. The figures The FTSE 100 company’s reported pre-tax profit was £593.3m for the year to 31 March, down 19.3 per cent from £735.2m. Adjusted pre-tax profits of £1.51bn were down from £1.56bn in 2015. Read more: SSE sells stake in its Scottish wind [...]
Has the Competition and Markets Authority missed a golden opportunity to overhaul the banking sector? May 18, 2016 Rishi Khosla, chief executive and co-founder of OakNorth, says Yes. While the CMA’s proposals will make it easier for individuals and businesses to compare and switch current accounts, and should help improve awareness and shopping around in the market, SMEs have once again been overlooked. The CMA has simply passed the buck to the Treasury, which [...]
CMA: UK banks must cap overdraft fees, adopt better technology to make switching easier May 17, 2016 Banks will have a maximum monthly charge they can impose on customers for using unarranged overdrafts, and be forced to give greater warnings to people who are about to go into the red to give them time to avoid charges, under new proposals put forward today. The Competition and Markets Authority, which has been carrying [...]
The break-up plan: It’s high time to end Britain’s banking oligopoly May 17, 2016 It has been called a near banking "oligopoly". The Big Four banks enjoy such market dominance that they reportedly hold more than three quarters of all active current accounts. According to the FCA, the largest six banks also control 80 per cent of the mortgage market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) grew sufficiently concerned [...]
CMA says BAA breakup shows how competition leads to benefits while adding further gains can be realised if runway capacity restraints can be lifted May 16, 2016 The breakup of BAA is an example of how competition can lead to benefits for business and personal customers, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said, while adding further gains can be realised if runway capacity restraints can be lifted. The CMA published an evaluation of the decision to break up BAA, which found a [...]
Ladbrokes and Gala Coral set for merger decision from watchdog May 16, 2016 A provisional decision is expected to be announced this week on the proposed merger between UK bookmakers Ladbrokes and Gala Coral. The merger, which was confirmed in a £2.3bn deal last July, would create the UK's largest bookie. The final decision on the merger, which will form new company Ladbrokes Coral, is still expected to be [...]
Prime position: Will Amazon come out on top in TV? May 16, 2016 Not content with battling premium video services like Netflix, Amazon now has YouTube in its sights. The launch of new user-generated content platform Amazon Video Direct (AVD) will allow video makers to upload their content to the site, where it can be watched by tens of millions of Prime subscribers. But becoming a one-stop shop for [...]
Public hungry for challenger banks, research finds May 16, 2016 Challenger banks are gaining traction as consumers want to see smaller players competing against the sector's established names, a new research has found. Figures from Netherlands-based Triodos bank indicate that just over three quarters (77%) of UK adults say that greater competition from challenger banks should be encouraged. A total of 49 per cent say that challengers could differ by providing [...]
Over 400 shops to be sold as part of £2.3bn Ladbrokes-Coral merger May 15, 2016 Bookies Ladbrokes and Coral look set to find out exactly how many branches they must sell this week as part of their £2.3bn merger. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) verdict on the deal is expected in the coming days, with The Sunday Telegraph reporting that the watchdog will order the combined firm to offload between 400 and 500 [...]
The storm is here: This is what you should expect to happen to P2P following the Lending Club catastrophe May 11, 2016 It's been a rather dark few days for the alternative lending industry. On Monday, news broke that the chief executive of US giant Lending Club, Renauld Laplanche, had been forced to resign by his board. First, the platform disclosed that it sold near-prime loans to a bank (Bloomberg reported that it was Jefferies) which it knew [...]