Lloyds Bank commits to £18bn of lending for UK companies January 6, 2020 Lloyds Bank has committed to lending £18bn to UK businesses over the course of 2020, the same amount as it promised in 2019 despite the uncertainties of the year ahead. The high-street bank said the money will be lent to companies across the spectrum, from “micro-businesses” to large multinationals. Read more: Barclays, Lloyds and RBS [...]
Andrew Bailey: Three issues the new Bank of England chief will have to tackle January 5, 2020 A safe pair of hands. That’s the cliche about the new Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who will take over the position from Mark Carney in March. The City and the British public will be hoping it is correct. Bailey does indeed have about as much experience of the BoE as it is possible [...]
Wall Street lenders face reporting probes by UK banking watchdog January 4, 2020 A number of Wall Street’s biggest banks are facing investigations from the UK’s banking regulator regarding concerns of widespread financial reporting failures. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is commissioning reports on the quality of data being supplied to it by companies including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, according to Sky News. The UK operations of [...]
Monzo closes in on £100m funding round December 30, 2019 Digital bank Monzo is close to securing up to £100m of funding to drive forward its growth plans. New and existing investors are involved in the ongoing fundraising talks, and the move could be followed by a larger funding round next year. Read more: Challenger bank Monzo launches loans The new investment, which was first [...]
Mark Carney warns financial sector over climate change December 30, 2019 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the financial sector must stop investing in fossil fuels faster in order to avoid irreversible global warming. Carney, who will step down from his central bank role next year, said pension fund analysis showed that “if you add up the policies of all of companies out [...]
Interest rates unlikely to rise in 2020, says ECB policymaker Robert Holzmann December 28, 2019 A European Central Bank policymaker has said it is unlikely interest rates will be lifted back into positive territory next year. Robert Holzmann cited Brexit as being likely to cause renewed concern toward the end of 2020. Read more: New ECB president Legarde tells governments to hite spending to tackle downturn The governing council voted [...]
Softbank board loses dissenting voice as Uniqlo founder leaves December 27, 2019 The founder of clothes company Uniqlo will resign from the board of Softbank after 18 months in the job. Tadashi Yanai, who is chief executive of Uniqlo, will leave the Softbank independent board member post at the end of the month to focus on his fashion business. Read more: Softbank ‘tightening governance’ at firms it [...]
Credit Suisse admits to spying on second executive December 24, 2019 The Credit Suisse spying saga continues as the Swiss bank admitted to having undertaken surveillance of a second senior executive. Following surveillance of the firm’s former wealth management chief, bank blamed former chief operating officer Pierre-Olivier Bouee for hiring detectives in February to track former human resources head Peter Goerke. Read more: Credit Suisse cuts [...]
HSBC and First Direct IT glitches leave customers unable to access online and mobile banking December 20, 2019 HSBC and First Direct have resolved issues causing intermittent problems for customers accessing online and mobile banking over the past 24 hours. Customers were unable to access their online or app banking from around 7:40pm last night and then again throughout today despite claims the issues had been resolved in the early hours of the [...]
Aberdeen Standard Investments to take control of Woodford Income Focus fund December 20, 2019 Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) will take over Neil Woodford’s sole remaining fund it has been revealed today. Fund administrator Link Fund Solutions confirmed to investors this morning that the management of the £267m fund would be handed to ASI. Read more: Windup date for flagship Neil Woodford fund confirmed by administrators The management of the [...]