Barclays U-turn on account fees: Bank will pay customers £4 a month as competition hots up April 14, 2015 Barclays will offer to pay current account customers from next week, intensifying the battle sweeping the high street since the seven-day switching service made it easier to move banks 18 months ago. The bank has been losing customers to rivals through the seven-day service, as other lenders have won clients by offering financial rewards. Barclays’ [...]
Ex-Towergate boss Mark Hodges is named new British Gas manager April 14, 2015 INSURANCE veteran Mark Hodges has been appointed as managing director of British Gas, taking over from interim manager Ian Peters. In his new role, which he takes up from 1 June, Hodges will be paid a basic salary of £625,000, as well as an annual bonus of up to 100 per cent of his salary [...]
Clydesdale hit by £20m fine for PPI faking April 14, 2015 CLYDESDALE Bank was fined £20.7m yesterday after the City watchdog found some of its staff had faked payment protection insurance (PPI) documentation when processing some compensation claims. The bank provided false information to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) when the officials requested information. In some cases, staff removed PPI from lists of products sold to customers, and [...]
City Moves for 15 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 14, 2015 Hastings Insurance The insurance firm has announced the appointment of Richard Hoskins as its group chief financial officer. He joins from AIG, where he was chief financial officer of its global commercial insurance business and the Americas region. Hoskins has also held roles at Aviva Group. Euler Hermes UK The credit insurance firm has appointed [...]
Conservative manifesto: Extending right-to-buy will transform the prospects of low income families April 14, 2015 The centrepiece of the Conservative Party manifesto, unveiled yesterday, was a significant expansion of the right-to-buy scheme. Giving families the ability to own their own home is a wonderful thing, and extending the scheme to housing associations, as the Conservatives propose, will certainly do that. The broad economic benefits of home ownership are well established, [...]
The 38 per cent rule: There’s a limit to how much the state can tax the people April 14, 2015 Ed Miliband’s proposal to tax non-doms more harshly may be good, populist politics. But does it make economic sense? At most, the yield will be around £1bn, even if people do not alter their behaviour in response to the change in policy. The actual amount generated could even be negative if enough non-doms leave the [...]
Quindell lines up Mark Williams as finance chief after Slater & Gordon sale April 14, 2015 Quindell has lined up a new chief to take the reigns of its finances after the sale of its legal services arm to Slater & Gordon. Mark Williams, part of the consultancy which was brought in to review Quindell's business in January following the departure of chairman Rob Terry, will join the firm when the [...]
Brokerage ICAP poaches Hiscox’s long-serving senior executive April 13, 2015 ICAP hired Stuart Bridges from insurance firm Hiscox yesterday, appointing him as the brokerage’s new group finance director. Bridges has been Hiscox’s chief finance officer since 1999 and is a long-serving board member and executive director. “Stuart brings valuable experience and an impressive track record in the global financial services industry and I am delighted [...]
Aviva takeover of rival Friends Life completes April 13, 2015 UK INSURER Aviva was up by 1.17 per cent after the first day of trading following completion of its takeover of Friends Life. The company announced yesterday that almost 1.1bn new Aviva shares had been admitted to the London Stock Exchange, taking its total number of issued shares to around 4.05bn. Aviva unveiled its £5.6bn [...]
City Moves for 14 April 2015 | Who’s switching jobs April 13, 2015 SunLife The financial services firm has appointed Emma Walker to lead its aggregator, digital, and customer experience teams. She joins from MoneySupermarket.com, where she was head of protection and non core insurance. LCH.Clearnet Steve Briscoe has been appointed group head of technology and operations at the clearing house. He joins from RBS, where he was [...]