RBS and NatWest downgrade 84,000 private bank accounts April 3, 2014 TENS of thousands of RBS and NatWest’s richest customers are being downgraded to normal accounts because they do not meet tough new criteria for the private bank, City A.M. has learned. The bank has written to 120,000 customers to tell them about the changes. Under the new rules customers will need an individual income of [...]
London’s 13 favourite skyscrapers ranked March 27, 2014 A report out two weeks ago documented over 236 skyscrapers coming to the city – over double what it’s got now. London's long been thought of as a low-rise city – compare it with New York and Hong Kong – but it looks like its skyline's in for a shift – upwards. How do Londoners [...]
Nationwide seizes market share February 20, 2014 THE NATIONWIDE is grabbing more current account and mortgage customers from the big four banks, the building society revealed yesterday. The growth pushed up profits as the lender’s interest margins improved. Nationwide made £21.6bn of mortgage loans in the nine months to December, up 34 per cent on the year. The growth is faster than that in [...]
RBS brands lost £722m in value over tough 2013 February 2, 2014 BRITISH banks’ brands are soaring in value around the world, according to consultancy Brand Finance, with the exception of RBS which has lost out sharply in the last year. Falling revenues at the state-backed bank are partly to blame, but the agency believes Lawrence Tomlinson’s claims that the lender forced small businesses to the wall [...]
The week in brief February 2, 2014 Jamie Oliver launches ad production business Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is launching a production house that will specialise in the creation of commercials, Campaign reported last week. The business, Fat Lemon Productions, will be led by executive producer Jane Bolton, formerly at Picasso Pictures and Nexus Network, and producer Cabell Hopkins, previously a producer M&C [...]
Say goodbye to the Bank of England’s first governor as he disappears from the £50 note this April January 16, 2014 Sir John Houblon will be disappearing from the £50 note this April. From then on, you'll only be able to get £50 notes featuring Matthew Boulton and James Watt. The pair were responsible for accelerating the progress of manufacturing steam engines during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their famous Boulton & Watt engines were responsible [...]
Bank goes on hire spree December 10, 2013 TESCO Bank yesterday revealed it is hiring 300 staff in preparation for the launch of its current account next year. The retailer hopes to take on the bigger lenders with its nationwide brand, large branch network and convenience. However, it has yet to detail how the accounts will work as well as their pricing. The [...]
Problems with Natwest online banking? Here’s one way to get round it December 6, 2013 Natwest is having more trouble with its website this afternoon, and has blamed a cyber attack for the problems. If you're having problems accessing your account, this link may work for you. Here's the update it released this afternoon: Due to a surge in internet traffic deliberately directed at the NatWest website, customers experienced difficulties accessing [...]
RBS and Natwest apologise for payment chaos on Cyber Monday December 3, 2013 RBS and Natwest have apologised on social media service Twitter for the failure of the giant bank's payment system last night. Hundreds of thousands of customers couldn't make online purchases, as well as being unable to use physical debit and credit cards. We are very sorry for the issues that have affected customers tonight. — [...]
RBS and Natwest hit by new IT failures on Cyber Monday December 2, 2013 CUSTOMERS at RBS and NatWest were frozen out for at least four hours last night as the giant bank’s payment system crashed for the third time in 18 months, and on the busiest shopping day of the year so far. Hundreds of thousands of transactions were blocked by the fault yesterday evening, stopping customers making [...]