Banks ombudsman fights for relevance amid Treasury crackdown August 18, 2025 The Financial Ombudsman Service is battling against a litany of obstacles as the government looks to “fundamentally” change its regulatory makeup. The organisation was rocked earlier this year by a leadership crisis following the abrupt departure of chief executive Abby Thomas in February. A Treasury Committee report, published in July, revealed Thomas had been dismissed [...]
Secure Trust Bank: Deposits hit record high as loan book swells August 14, 2025 Specialist lender Secure Trust Bank posted a bumper first half of the year after customer deposits smashed a record high and lending balances swelled. The firm recorded a 8.2 per cent increase in deposits to £3.5bn whilst net landing balances grew 6.1 per cent to £3.8bn. This helped drive an over 30 per cent jump [...]
Demand for City lawyers surges amid motor finance scandal August 13, 2025 Lawyers are facing questions after the Supreme Court's motor finance ruling left the door open for consumer claims
S&U shares jump as bank predicts profit ‘resurgence’ August 12, 2025 Shares in specialist lender S&U rallied as markets opened on Tuesday after the bank said its “resurgence in profitability” had begun to materialise. The London-listed firm’s stock was up over three per cent in early trading to 1,940. The jump came after the lender provided an upbeat trading update, anticipating building momentum for the second [...]
Why business confidence is all over the place August 12, 2025 Kemi Badenoch looked aghast but Keir Starmer was defiant. Business confidence was at a nine-year high, the prime minister declared in the House of Commons in mid-July. The Conservative Party leader was not having any of it. Neither were many economists and analysts watching from the City. What Starmer claimed was not false, per se. Research [...]
Motor finance: Lords sound alarm on FCA’s redress scheme August 8, 2025 The House of Lords’ Financial Services Regulation Committee has sounded the alarm on “market uncertainty” around the UK financial watchdog’s upcoming motor finance redress scheme. In a letter addressed to the Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive Nikhil Rathi, the committee “considers it of importance” to receive further insight into the forthcoming scheme. The City watchdog [...]
FOS complaints tumbled ahead of motor finance ruling August 7, 2025 Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) fell to their lowest in more than a year ahead of the motor finance ruling. The FOS received 68,000 new cases in April to June, down from 74,600 complaints in the same period of 2024. Motor finance complaints remained the highest grievance but dropped to 21,500 cases from [...]
Vanquis swings to profit with recovery ‘on track’ August 7, 2025 Bradford-based lender Vanquis swung back into profitability for the first half of the year following on from a bruising period in the last 12 months. The bank recorded a profit before tax of £6.2m, compared to a £91.9m loss for the second half of 2024. Net interest income remained stable with one per cent growth [...]
FCA boss rejects criticism of motor finance redress August 5, 2025 The head of the UK’s financial watchdog has pushed back at industry claims that the wide scope of the motor finance redress scheme is “impractical”. Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority said: “We know it is difficult. But you can’t say the law has been broken and it is too difficult to [...]
‘Not the end of the story:’ Uncertainty for motor finance lenders after court ruling August 5, 2025 Banking stocks may be revving up on the back of a legal win but motor finance lenders might find there is still trouble lurking under the bonnet. City banks dodged a £44bn liability after the Supreme Court upheld the appeal of two banks in the historic car-misselling case. On Friday, Close Brothers and First Rand [...]