Federal Reserve green lights UBS-Credit Suisse deal in US April 15, 2023 The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors on Friday said it has approved UBS Group AG's acquisition of the U.S. subsidiaries of Credit Suisse, clearing another major hurdle for the completion of the Swiss-brokered rescue deal.
HSBC’s exit from French retail market set to face delays as ‘unexpected interest rate rises’ force Cerberus to find more cash April 14, 2023 HSBC’s exit from the French retail market has been thrown into doubt after Cerberus Capital said it will need to stump up more cash to fund the transaction as a result of rising interest rates. In a statement today, HSBC said “unexpected interest rate rises” have forced Cerberus to significantly increase the amount of capital [...]
US banks outperform expectations with interest income boosting profit at both Wells Fargo and Citi April 14, 2023 Wells and Citi both saw profit come in comfortably ahead of market expectations as US banks weathered the storm prompted by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). At Wells Fargo, revenue climbed 17 per cent to $20.7bn helping profit rise 32 per cent year-on-year to come in at $5.0bn. Markets expected revenue to be [...]
JP Morgan profits up 52 per cent as it benefits from SVB chaos with influx in deposits of $37bn April 14, 2023 JP Morgan reported a surge in profit in the first quarter and an increase in deposits as the Wall Street giant weathered turmoil in the banking sector to deliver record results. Profit at America’s largest bank soared 52 per cent to hit $12.6bn while its diluted earnings per share was $4.10, significantly ahead of consensus [...]
UK banks reduce fossil fuel financing 31 per cent last year – but will the trend continue? April 13, 2023 Most of the UK’s largest banks cut back on fossil fuel financing last year but activists argue the sector needs to make firmer commitments to ensure it meets its net zero commitments. According to an annual report from the Rainforest Action Network, the FTSE 100’s five banking giants lent $35.7bn to fossil fuel companies in [...]
UK banks report more defaults – and it’s likely to get worse April 13, 2023 Banks and building societies have seen an uptick in defaults in both secured and unsecured lending – a trend that is expected to continue over the next three months, according to new data published by the Bank of England today. In the three months to February, UK lenders included in the Bank’s credit conditions [...]
TSB Bank’s ex-chief information officer fined more than £80,000 over IT debacle April 13, 2023 TSB Bank’s former chief information officer has been fined £81,620 by the industry watchdog for failures relating to the botched merger of the firm’s IT services in 2018. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said Carlos Abarca, who left the bank in December 2019, “failed to take reasonable steps” to ensure that TSB managed the outsourcing [...]
JP Morgan’s top bankers told to work five days a week in the office April 12, 2023 JP Morgan has asked its senior bankers in all of its offices around the world to work from the office five days a week in another sign of executives’ growing frustration with homeworking. In a memo to staff seen by Morning Wire, JP Morgan’s operating committee said that its leaders play “a critical role in [...]
Bank authorities must ‘learn lessons’ from March’s mini-crisis, top regulator warns April 12, 2023 The world’s top financial authorities need to learn the lessons from the Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse, the chair of a major global regulatory body warned today, hinting at the need for more stringent bank rules to prevent such chaos in the future. Klaas Knot, chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), noted the financial [...]
Deposits in focus as US banks line up to report amid banking volatility April 12, 2023 The largest banks on Wall Street will start reporting their first quarter earnings later this week with investors set to pay very close attention to banks’ deposits. So far this year, huge amounts of money have flowed into higher-yielding money market funds from bank deposits. This picked up in March after the collapse of Silicon [...]