Banks move to buy parts of NatWest’s Irish loan book February 19, 2021 Allied Irish Banks has entered a non-binding agreement to buy around €4bn of corporate and commercial loans from NatWest’s Irish outfit, while separate talks elsewhere are ongoing to buy other assets. This morning NatWest announced it will pull out of its operations in the Republic of Ireland, after reporting a £351m annual loss in 2020. [...]
NatWest tumbles to £351m loss in 2020 as bank shuts door on Irish market February 19, 2021 NatWest has today announced that it will pull out of its operations in the Republic of Ireland after reporting a £351m annual loss. The bank intends to withdraw from its Ulster Bank but operations will not be affected in Northern Ireland. It will exit the country following a strategic review and send $4.84bn worth of [...]
All eyes on dividends: What to expect from Barclays and Natwest this week February 16, 2021 Barclays and Natwest will be the first of the major high street banks to report full year results this week. It has been a difficult 12 months with Brexit weighing on sentiment in addition to the fallout from the pandemic. All eyes will be on dividend payments after the Prudential Regulation Authority effectively banned payouts [...]
Some City investors are starting to get nervous about inflation February 16, 2021 The UK will release new inflation data later this week, but if recent investor comments and analyst notes are anything to go by, it is becoming increasingly clear that some within the investment community are starting to get nervous about inflation. According to last month’s figures by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s annual [...]
Ranked: Monzo tops list of best UK banks as digital services thrive February 15, 2021 Digital fintechs Monzo and First Direct provide better service to customers than traditional banks, according to a recent survey. Ipsos MORI conducted a review of around 1,000 customers from each of the 19 biggest personal current account providers in the UK to rank the best and worst banks. The findings are designed to compare the [...]
The Week Ahead: Barclays, Natwest, retail sales, public borrowing February 15, 2021 City A.M. takes a look at some of this week’s market-shaping events. Barclays – Full year results (Thursday) The past 12 months have been difficult ones for banks in general, but UK banks have underperformed relative to their peers, Hewson said, with the unknowns of what a final Brexit deal might look like also weighing [...]
Exclusive: Online retail sales record five years growth in 12 months due to pandemic February 12, 2021 Online retail sales recorded five years of growth in just 12 months as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the shift to digital shopping, the latest research showed. E-commerce sales accounted for 19 per cent of retail spending in 2019 compared to 28 per cent 2020 after restrictions and lockdowns forced consumer spending online and away from [...]
FTSE 100 trades flat as banks lead the biggest fallers February 11, 2021 The FTSE 100 is trading flat this afternoon after the excitement of corporate earnings wore off. Investors had initially been boosted by rose by Astrazeneca’s upbeat quarterly results, which is now trading up 0.8 per cent. Banks are proving to be a drag on the FTSE this afternon which slipped to trade down 0.04 per [...]
British banks set to hand out hundreds of millions in staff bonuses February 6, 2021 Britain’s largest banks are finalising plans to hand out hundreds of millions of pounds in staff bonuses next week, at the same time loan losses are expected to catapult during the pandemic. Taxpayer-backed lender Natwest Group has informed the Treasury that it is poised to distribute more than £200m in staff bonuses for 2020. The [...]
Wall Street opens at record high on stimulus progress February 5, 2021 The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq opened at record highs on today on signs of progress towards more economic stimulus, while a closely watched jobs report confirmed the labor market was stabilising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38 points, or 0.12 per cent, at the open to 31093.81. The S&P 500 rose 6.6 points, [...]