RBS launches digital bank Bo in bid to rival fintechs November 27, 2019 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has officially launched its digital bank as it looks to rival a group of fast-growing fintechs and hoover up more online customers. The state-backed lender has created Bó, its new digital, cloud-based bank featuring a bright yellow Visa card and a mobile app. Read more: LSE hires fintech to widen [...]
Food for thought: How Tastecard is helping the restaurant sector November 25, 2019 The restaurant sector is in a crisis. A combination of rising rents, food prices and wage costs, plus a decline in consumer spending, is causing more businesses to close. Research published in September exposed the scale of the problem. According to accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, the number of restaurants closing in the year to [...]
City Moves for 8 November – Who’s switching jobs at Sancus BMS, Trident Resources and IMG? November 8, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes Sancus BMS, Trident Resources and IMG Sancus BMS Sancus BMS Group, the asset backed alternative lender, has announced that Bob Rowbotham has joined their team in London as director of business development. Bob will be responsible for developing relationships and generating business from brokers and borrowers throughout the UK. Bob’s most [...]
Three problems at the top of new RBS boss Alison Rose’s to-do list November 1, 2019 Alison Rose begins life as the new boss of RBS today with her work cut out for her. In a letter to staff this morning, the RBS lifer set out her commitments, which included “a clear focus on shared success” and “investment in people”. But as the firm’s recent quarterly financial results demonstrated, there is [...]
Investment banking boost helps Barclays despite £1.4bn PPI charge October 25, 2019 Barclays has confirmed a £1.4bn hit to its balance sheet following a rush of payment protection insurance (PPI) claims. The British bank also warned that a gloomy global economic outlook could make it harder to hit profit targets despite posting a double-digit rise in pre-tax profit for its third quarter today. Read more: Amazon shares [...]
RBS swings to loss in wake of £900m PPI charges October 24, 2019 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) swung to a loss during the last quarter as a rush of payment protection insurance (PPI) claims caused a £900m hit to the lender’s balance sheet. RBS reports an operating loss of £8m for the nine months to the end of September 2019, falling from £961m in the same period last [...]
RBS retail chief to exit after ten years with bank October 20, 2019 Royal Bank of Scotland’s retail banking chief executive is preparing to leave the lender as new boss Alison Rose completes her senior leadership team. Les Matheson, who joined RBS in 2010 and became personal banking chief executive in 2014, is planning to leave the bank in the coming months, Sky News reported. Read more: Alison [...]
Natwest raises available loans for small businesses by over £2bn for Brexit support October 17, 2019 NatWest has added £2.2bn to a Brexit loan pot aimed at supporting small businesses amid Britain’s imminent departure of the EU. The high street lender is upping the size of its Growth Funding programme to £8.2bn after identifying thousands of smaller firms facing potential disruption with Brexit. Read more: Bank of America trumps estimates Natwest, [...]
Three down: Customers demand refunds as mobile network outage wipes out data and minutes October 17, 2019 Thousands of customers took to Twitter to complain after Three failed to acknowledge a mobile network outage that wiped out data and calls after occurring last night. People were unable to receive 4G data or mobile phone signal to make calls across the UK, but Three was tight-lipped on the root cause of the problem. [...]
Natwest launches UK’s first biometric fingerprint credit card October 7, 2019 Natwest has become the first UK bank to launch a biometric credit card that allows contactless payments using a fingerprint for verification. The cards have entered into circulation today as part of a three-month trial with 150 customers. It comes after a successful trial of biometric debit cards. Read more: Natwest customers wrestle with IT [...]