When words matter more than numbers at the Bank of England May 5, 2025 City analysts have pencilled in their predictions for Thursday. Here’s how almost all of them likely read. Interest rates will be cut to 4.25 per cent, the Bank of England’s inflation forecast for this year will exceed its two per cent target and President Trump’s tariffs will be highlighted as a detriment to UK growth. [...]
FTSE 100 lenders cash in on market turmoil but provisions climb May 5, 2025 FTSE 100 banking giants saw trading income spike in the first quarter as investors sold-off stocks in the face of geopolitical tensions, but tariff threats continued to weigh on future earnings. HSBC kicked off reporting season pocketing a $9.5bn (£7.1bn) pre-tax profit, which surged ahead of the $7.8bn pencilled in by analysts. Barclays and Natwest [...]
Breadmakers Hovis and Kingsmill in merger talks May 3, 2025 The owners of two of Britain’s biggest bread producers – Hovis and Kingsmill – are reportedly in discussions regarding a merger between the two firms as challenges deepen for the market. Associated British Foods (ABF), the owner of Kingsmill’s parent company Allied Bakeries, and investment firm Endless, which owns Hovis, are in talks about a [...]
Harrods hit in cyber spree as experts warn of ‘coordinated campaign’ May 2, 2025 Harrods has become the latest high profile UK retailer targeted by cyber attackers, joining Marks & Spencer and Co-op Group in a spate of recent incidents that security experts fear may be part of a broader attack against the sector. Harrods has confirmed that it had experienced “attempted to gain unauthorised access” to its systems. [...]
Post Office extends banks’ cash deal as MPs call for mandated acceptance May 1, 2025 The Post Office has reached a five-year banking deal with lenders and building societies to keep cash services running amid a continued retreat of banks from the high street. This renewed deal follows research commissioned by the company, which found nine in ten people believe it is important to maintain access to cash. The partnership [...]
The Capitalist: Ian King’s sendoff, Guido adventures and your workplace weather rights May 1, 2025 Ian King's Sky sendoff, the man behind Guido Fawkes and your workplace weather rights; catch up on the latest gossip in The Capitalist.
Mark Kleinman: Is Reeves about to rip up ring-fencing? May 1, 2025 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Is Reeves about to rip up ring-fencing? Rachel Reeves rips up ring-fencing: it’s an alliteration aficionado’s dream headline. It’s also an increasingly realistic one, following an intervention by a quartet of UK bank chiefs last week [...]
Local elections 2025: Final polls show fractured public opinion April 30, 2025 Thursday is the first major electoral test of a new political reality, with Reform UK looking to surge and the Conservatives facing crushing losses. These councils, last contested at the height of Boris Johnson’s post-Covid vaccine powers in 2021, present Kemi Badenoch’s party with a staggering number of seats to defend. Based on the current [...]
Barclays boss breaks from FTSE 100 peers on Reeves lobbying April 30, 2025 The chief executive of Barclays has defended the ring-fencing regulation facing British banks, despite his FTSE 100 peers calling on the Chancellor to abolish it. CS Venkatakrishnan told Sky News on Wednesday morning that the benefits of protection offered by the rules outweigh the costs of implementing and administering the system. The UK’s ring-fencing regime [...]
Paradise ploughed: Laferm Coco is a pastoral oasis in Mauritius April 29, 2025 Wandering through Laferm Coco, you pass through neat little fields packed with guava and papaya and bananas and coconuts and turmeric, all hemmed in by jagged volcanic mountains, the splashes of colour from the produce impossibly saturated beneath a clear blue sky. Elsewhere farmyard animals flap and graze and squabble. There’s a duck pond that [...]