Natwest profits soar but customers withdraw £1bn as cost of living and tax bills bite April 28, 2023 Natwest has beaten profit expectations during the first three months of this year. Natwest Group, which includes Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, recorded a pretax profit of £1.8bn in the three months ending 31 March. The total comes in ahead of analysts’ expectations of £1.6bn for the quarter and ahead of the £1.2bn during [...]
Average house price rises to £366,000 as tenants look to escape rental crisis April 24, 2023 UK house prices jumped again in March, driven higher by soaring rents pushing tenants to seek out their first home, but further interest rate hikes by the Bank of England could send a chill through the market, new research out today shows. The average price of a property coming to market in Britain hit £366k [...]
Standard Chartered, Barclays, Natwest kick off UK bank earnings this week with interest income back in focus April 24, 2023 Profit looks set to increase at the UK’s largest lenders as they line up to report first quarter earnings over the coming two weeks. The FTSE banking giants have seen relative stability over the last few weeks following the extreme volatility in March, but this stability means investors will refocus their attention on other major [...]
FCA will ‘keep its eyes’ on banks’ Q1 results for evidence of savings rate profiteering April 20, 2023 Savers are facing a rising “loyalty penalty” from high street banks, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned. Customers banking with the UK’s big name lenders are likely to earn less competitive interest rates on their savings over time, while new savers are given more attractive offers, the City watchdog told MPs today. “Harm” from [...]
Credit Suisse files $440m claim against SoftBank from Greensill’s collapse April 19, 2023 Credit Suisse formally filed its $440m lawsuit against SoftBank earlier this month as it seeks to claim back funds which were locked in Greensill Capital when it collapsed in 2021. The legal action is the first since it was taken over by UBS last month. The bank said it “continues to prioritise maximising recovery for [...]
Credit Suisse in High Court tomorrow: Bank sued over securities linked to 2008 crisis April 19, 2023 Credit Suisse is set to appear at the High Court in London on Thursday to defend itself against a $160m (£129m) claim over allegations the Swiss bank made “fraudulent misrepresentations” related to the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities. The claim, brought by Loreley Financing, a subsidiary of German bank IKB, argues it was misled by [...]
Moneysupermarket sales lifted as Brits go deal hunting to protect finances April 18, 2023 A boom in consumers shopping around for better savings accounts has boosted sales for comparison site Moneysupermarket. The platform profited from people hunting down better deals throughout last year and saw revenues across its money division, which compares current and savings accounts, credit cards, and loans, jump by 37 per cent. The company said this was [...]
Britain still at risk of ‘mild recession’ despite better than feared start to year, Lloyds Bank chief predicts April 16, 2023 Britain could still suffer “a mild recession” despite the economy performing much better than experts warned at the turn of the year, the head of Lloyds Bank, the country’s largest mortgage lender, has said. Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Bank, told The Sunday Times that there is a “more positive outlook” about the UK [...]
More tick-box regulations won’t save us from a financial crisis April 14, 2023 After the fall of both Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, the instinct will be to double down on new rules. Instead, banks need to learn to stabilise their risks, writes Mary O’Connor.
UK banks report more defaults – and it’s likely to get worse April 13, 2023 Banks and building societies have seen an uptick in defaults in both secured and unsecured lending – a trend that is expected to continue over the next three months, according to new data published by the Bank of England today. In the three months to February, UK lenders included in the Bank’s credit conditions [...]