Hefty £1.5bn trading error legal charge erodes Barclays profits July 28, 2022 A £1.5bn legal charge for a trading error has eroded British bank Barclays’s profits, it announced today. Hefty litigation and regulatory costs to deal with selling too many financial products dealt a major blow to Barclays’s first half earnings. Pre-tax profits dropped by a quarter to £3.7bn in the six months to June, down from [...]
Upbeat earnings fail to turn investors’ eyes from steep US technical recession July 28, 2022 A string of upbeat earnings was not today enough to cushion City investor jitters over a slowdown in the US economy. London’s premier FTSE 100 index dipped 0.04 per cent to 7,345.09 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, added 1.1 per cent [...]
Week ahead: Banks to report amid high inflation and interest rate fears July 25, 2022 Customer behaviour and cost control are set to be top of the in-tray for the major banks as they update investors over the next week. Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest are all set to update the markets in a bumper week for the sector. Although priorities will vary slightly, there will be significant focus on whether [...]
UK banks’ profits surge past French rivals for first time since before Brexit vote July 4, 2022 Profits at Britain’s banks have topped their French counterparts for the first time since before the Brexit vote, reveals a fresh study published today. The UK’s largest lenders posted pre-tax profits of $55.1bn (£45.6bn) last year, slightly higher than the $54.8bn (£45.3bn) registered by French banks, according to The Banker’s annual top 1,000 world bank [...]
Barclays fights cost of living crisis with £1,200 pay rise for 35,000 employees June 30, 2022 Barclays is giving 35,000 of its UK-based staff a £1,200 pay rise to tackle the cost of living. The banking giant will provide this salary increase to customer-facing, branch, and junior support workers from 1 August. “Barclays will continue to monitor the economic situation globally and consider our approach to pay in each country in [...]
Barclays makes major lending push with £2.3bn deal for Kensington Mortgage Company June 24, 2022 In a major push to broaden its lending offering, banking giant Barclays said this morning it has agreed a deal worth around £2.3bn to buy specialist lender Kensington Mortgage Company. Barclays said the acquisition will allow it to offer more mortgage options to the self-employed and people who have multiple or variable incomes. The bank [...]
Banks boosted by looming BoE interest rate hike June 15, 2022 Strengthening bets on the Bank of England tomorrow hiking interest rates for the fifth meeting in a row boosted the UK’s biggest-listed banks today. The capital’s premier FTSE 100 index surged 1.2 per cent to 7,273.41 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, [...]
UK banks no longer ‘too big to fail’ but sector still has room for improvement June 10, 2022 All of the UK’s top banks would survive a major financial shock, but some have shortcomings in ensuring they fund themselves through a crisis, the Bank of England said today. Britain’s eight biggest high street lenders would be able to fail safely without a repeat of bailouts seen during the financial crisis in 2008, according [...]
Ex-banker turned GoCardless president Paul Stoddart talks fintech, Brexit, pandemic recovery and Russia May 28, 2022 At the start of this month, Paul Stoddart jumped ship to become the president of the newly-minted fintech unicorn GoCardless. Stoddart, who describes himself as a “banker by trade,” spent years at Natwest, Barclays, and was most recently the chairman of Mastercard’s VocaLink. In an exclusive interview with City A.M., Stoddart said that joining GoCardless [...]
Inside Barclays chaotic shareholder meeting: AGM halted as security chase and drag out dozens of climate activists May 4, 2022 Barclays’ annual shareholder meeting was disrupted by a small army of climate change protesters who had to be forcibly removed by security. The banking giant’s AGM in Manchester got off to a chaotic start after a series of disruptions from green activists in the audience. Chairman Nigel Higgins was forced to pause the meeting while [...]