FTSE 100 banks add £80bn in market value this year August 19, 2025 Shares in the UK’s top FTSE 100 banks, Barclays, Natwest, Lloyds and HSBC have all hit decade highs this year, producing more than £80bn in market value. The banking sector is the second-best performing FTSE 100 sector this year with a return of 37 per cent, second only to the defence sector. The FTSE 100’s [...]
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 [...]
Mark Kleinman: Thames Water’s fate now sounds like a dripping timebomb August 14, 2025 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column Thames Water’s fate now sounds like a dripping timebomb There are few more irritating sounds than that of a dripping tap you cannot fix. That, writ large, is the headache facing the Labour government as it [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Entrepreneur slams No 10 wealth grab – despite getting taxpayer-backed loan August 6, 2025 The founder of a hot tub and plunge pool business has said he understood why “the masses” were leaving Britain and was accelerating plans to do so himself, despite his firm recently receiving a taxpayer-funded loan to fuel its international expansion. Rob Carlin, who runs Derbyshire-based spa company Superior Wellness, blamed a succession of punitive [...]
Motor finance ruling hands City banks £7bn stock boost August 4, 2025 The FTSE 100’s banking giants added billions to their market value on Monday after a hefty boost from the Supreme Court’s motor finance ruling. Lloyds Banking Group bolstered its market capitalisation by over £3.5bn after a seven per cent surge to a five-year high on the back of the top Court’s ruling last Friday. The [...]
FTSE 100 banks outperform but face tougher waters ahead August 4, 2025 The FTSE 100’s banking constituents breezed through the second quarter results season as interest income remained stable and trading income soared on the back of market volatility. The ‘Big Five’ banks of London’s flagship stock index – Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds and Standard Chartered – pocketed a combined £12.8bn in the three months to June [...]
Barclays follows HSBC in ditching net zero banks club August 1, 2025 Barclays has become the second London-based bank to exit the net zero banks club as the financial services industry continues to row back on climate policies. The FTSE 100 giant – which recorded a £1bn profit jump for the second quarter – said on Friday the UN-convened Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) “no longer has [...]
Rachel Reeves could use bank windfall tax to plug Labour’s U-turns July 31, 2025 Rachel Reeves could launch a fresh tax grab on banks to plug the spending holes left by Labour’s recent U-turns, new analysis has found. The Chancellor is poised to hike taxes in the Autumn Budget after a series of government policy switches eroded her already wafer-thin fiscal headroom of £9.9bn. This comes as fresh research [...]