Fancy a pay rise? Get a job offer from somewhere else… August 14, 2023 More than half of London employers have made use of counteroffers in the past 12 months to try and keep staff as skills shortages persist, according to a new report.
Santander becomes latest bank to cut mortgage rates amid falling inflation August 14, 2023 Santander has become the latest high street lender to reduce the rates of its mortgage deals, following a stream of other cuts by fellow banks last week, in a signal of hope for prospective buyers. On Monday, the bank cut its selected residential purchase and remortgage fixed rates by between 0.05 per cent and 0.29 [...]
Open banking should expand ‘systematically’ as fintech criticises ‘data protectionism’ of big banks August 14, 2023 Regulators should expand open banking rules “systematically” in order to save customers thousands of pounds across a variety of different financial products, experts told Morning Wire. With stakeholders consulting on the next stages of open banking, many in the sector have suggested regulators need to be bold in expanding data sharing rules into new financial [...]
London growth continues to outpace every other region amid interest rate pain August 14, 2023 London’s economy has continued to outpace the rest of the country even as rising interest rates and recessionary fears drag on confidence across the UK, a closely watched survey has revealed.
Co-operative Bank picks up £479m Sainsbury mortgage portfolio amid speculation over banking M&A August 11, 2023 The Co-operative Bank has bought the mortgage portfolio of Sainsbury’s Bank for £464m as speculation over the future of the UK’s mid-sized lenders continues. The portfolio contains around 3,500 customers and is worth nearly £480m. The deal’s completion comes after months of negotiations, with reports earlier in the year suggesting talks between the two had [...]
UBS cancels £8bn backstop agreed to help soothe merger with Credit Suisse August 11, 2023 UBS has voluntarily ended the CHF9bn (£8bn) loss protection deal agreed with the Swiss government following its emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse. The decision followed “a comprehensive assessment of the designated portfolio of Credit Suisse non-core assets, including severe stress loss scenarios,” the bank said. UBS has also terminated the CHF100bn liquidity backstop from the [...]
Profit not process: How our banks grew too bureaucratic for their own good August 11, 2023 Judgement is being impaired by bureaucratic process, write two of the City's foremost lawyers
How Data Changed the Game for Aon’s Brokers August 10, 2023 | Sponsored Despite playing a very important role at the heart of London’s reinsurance market, James Milne, AON’s UK and Ireland head, tells Morning Wire that he doesn’t often hear about insurance around the dinner party table. But when he does, it’s usually the cost of car insurance, which has gone up significantly over recent months as [...]
Arrears continue to rise as higher rates pour pain onto borrowers August 10, 2023 Arrears continued rising in the second quarter as customers struggled with soaring repayment costs, new data shows. According to figures from industry body UK Finance, there were 81,900 homeowner mortgages in arrears of more than 2.5 per cent in the second quarter, seven per cent more than the previous quarter. Within this, 30,940 mortgages were [...]
OneSavings Bank profits slump as customers race to refinance mortgages August 10, 2023 Profit at OneSavings Bank (OSB) Group slumped in the first half of the year as the lender dealt with a £180m hit from changing customer behaviour. Pretax profit at the FTSE-250 listed specialist bank fell 71 per cent to £76.7m from £268.1m in the same period last year. The bank announced a dividend of 10.2p, [...]