FTSE 100 Live: Bank shares surge; Gold surpasses $4,000 October 8, 2025 Good morning from the City AM live blog team. Arguably no sector has had as sensitive share movement in recent months as the banking industry. In August, following the motor finance ruling, City banks added £7bn in market value after a major boost from the Supreme Court. But less than a month later after the [...]
Autumn Budget: Why are banks in Rachel Reeves’ tax crosshairs? October 7, 2025 The “pass the parcel” of Budget speculation has fallen back into the lap of the banking industry with the nation’s top lenders finding themselves as a potential subject of a November cash grab. Fresh reports have indicated Rachel Reeves is actively considering a raid on Britain’s banking giants – even as she continues to make [...]
Revolut, Barclays and Monzo top fraud complaints ranking October 1, 2025 Challenger banks Revolut and Monzo have topped the rankings for fraud and scam complaints filed to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) as Brits flock towards digital offerings. Fintech juggernaut Revolut received the most amount of APP fraud complaints referred to the FOS at 1,875. Monzo scored third at 1,063. It comes as the pair continue [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Asos and Close Brothers lead City stocks’ fall as economic growth slows September 30, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. When Rachel Reeves prepared her inaugural budget last year, she had little in the way of good news to impart to the people of Britain. The chancellor said she’d been left a bad inheritance, and had to raise tens of billions of pounds in extra taxes to plug spending [...]
Natwest chair: Rachel Reeves’ Budget must include radical tax reform September 29, 2025 The chair of banking giant Natwest has called for Rachel Reeves to implement “radical tax reform” in her Autumn Budget. Rick Haythornthwaite has said a “bold long-term plan” to “kick-start growth” would reassure jittery bond markets and “deliver much-needed social benefits”. “This is the time for a 10-year programme of radical tax reform. Time for [...]
Natwest and HSBC shares dip as bank tax chatter heats up September 22, 2025 Shares in Natwest and HSBC dipped on Monday morning as traders digested renewed chatter of a tax hike on Britain’s banking giants. Natwest tumbled as much as 1.3 per cent to 506p when markets opened, while HSBC fell 0.6 per cent to 1,022p. Barclays fell nearly 0.2 per cent to 381p. Lloyds was broadly flat [...]
City asked to contribute £120m Rachel Reeves’ stock market push September 22, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ major advertising push to re-invigorate the London market is expected to cost the City £120m, new documents have revealed. The campaign, which is being led by the Investment Association, was announced as part of Reeves’ Mansion House package where the Chancellor made her pro-business plea to the City. But smaller financial services firms [...]
Natwest in talks to sell pension provider Cushon September 19, 2025 Natwest is gearing up to sell pension provider Cushon just two years after it first acquired the business. The bank has lined up advisers to help work on a sale of the London fintech and is already in talks with a number of potential suitors, according to a report by Sky News. Natwest acquired an [...]
UK Treasury questions OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta over AI in financial services September 18, 2025 The Treasury Committee has sent letters to six major technology firms, including OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, seeking detailed information about the role they play in providing AI services to the UK financial sector. The correspondence is part of the Committee’s inquiry into AI in financial services, ahead of forthcoming sessions with regulators and HM [...]
Two in five financial services firms lack safe AI controls September 11, 2025 As the financial services industry piles billions of pounds into artificial intelligence (AI), firms are lacking adequate measures to maintain safe usage, according to new figures. Fresh data from Big Four accountancy giant EY reveal 26 per cent of companies have no or limited controls in place to ensure AI systems adhere to laws and [...]