Natwest: Shares in FTSE 100 giant smash decade high May 15, 2025 Shares in banking giant Natwest notched a ten-year high on Thursday as the government continued to whittle down its stake in the lender. The FTSE 100 giant’s stock was up nearly one per cent during mid-day trading and touched highs of 498.8p. Natwest shares are up nearly 24 per cent since the beginning of 2025 [...]
How the big four banks are proving private capital can drive social change May 15, 2025 Better Society Capital has unlocked £4bn in social investment over 12 years, proving how public-private collaboration can tackle the UK’s most complex challenges – from housing to healthcare. Here’s why it’s time for more investors to step up, says James Chew In 2011, the UK’s four largest banks – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest – [...]
FTSE 100 banks Lloyds and Natwest set to profit despite lower interest rates May 13, 2025 Amidst a backdrop of waning interest rates, FTSE 100 banking giants such as Lloyds and Natwest look set to continue to profit, according to analysts. Lenders’ takings from net interest income (NII) remained steady in the first quarter, even after the Bank of England chopped interest rates four times to 4.5 per cent. Since then, [...]
Scottish Widows abandons Mansion House pension funds agreement May 13, 2025 One of the UK’s largest pension funds has ditched a key agreement seen as crucial to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ push to drive growth. Scottish Widows has not signed up to the second iteration of the Mansion House Compact, despite having thrown its weight behind an earlier version of the plans. The original pact saw 11 [...]
Santander rejected £11bn Natwest bid for UK business May 9, 2025 Santander rebuffed an £11bn bid for its UK retail banking division from Natwest earlier this year because it was was too low. The two lenders are no longer in negotiations, according to people familliar with the matter cited by the Financial Times, despite consistent speculation about the fate of the Spanish financial juggernaut’s UK business. [...]
AWS pushes UK chip plans amid AI energy crunch May 8, 2025 Amazon Web Services (AWS) has defended the environmental and economic rationale behind its push into custom silicon and AI infrastructure, amid increasing scrutiny over the carbon footprint and power demands of hyperscale cloud providers. Speaking at the AWS summit in London, Dave Brown, vice president of compute and networking at AWS, highlighted the firm’s investment [...]
What the Bank of England’s interest rate cut means for your mortgage May 8, 2025 The Bank of England has reduced rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.25 per cent in a hotly anticipated cut that will leave homeowners with big decisions for their mortgage deals. The reduced cost for banks to borrow money will have broad implications for the mortgage market, as banks lower interest rates on loans. Major [...]
Vanquis and Barclays lead surge in bank complaints amid motor finance May 7, 2025 Banking complaints rocketed by 76 per cent in the second half of 2024 as the motor finance scandal continued to haunt the sector, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The regulator revealed of the 141,846 complaints made to the FOS, 77 per cent were related to banking and credit at 109,155. This also marked [...]
Revealed: The 2025 City AM Awards Winners May 7, 2025 The winners of the 2025 City AM Awards were unveiled at a glittering ceremony in the heart of the Square Mile last night in front of 500 guests. The gongs were handed out on stage in the Guildhall, following a speech from former Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane. City AM Editor-in-Chief, Christian May, [...]
Ministers call in HSBC, Natwest and Lloyds bosses for small business lending talks May 6, 2025 Top bank bosses were summoned for talks with ministers on Tuesday after a government report revealed that small businesses were having difficulty securing loans. Senior executives from HSBC, Natwest and Lloyds will be in attendance for the meeting, which will be chaired by minister for small business Gareth Thomas. A report from the Department of [...]