Lender Provident Financial shares tumble on profit warning January 15, 2019 Provident Financial’s share price plunged more than 20 per cent in early morning trading after the sub-prime lender issued a profit warning. The FTSE 250 firm led the market fallers today after saying that it expects earnings for 2018 to be at the lower end of expectations, blaming modestly higher payment arrangements at its credit [...]
Atom Bank poised to appoint Citi for potential sale to Spanish bank January 14, 2019 Digital lender Atom Bank is in talks with advisers over a potential instruction that could lead to its takeover by Spanish banking behemoth BBVA. According to Sky News, the Durham-based bank is in discussions with Citi about a role advising the board of the business on its future options. Last year Atom Bank raised nearly [...]
Are Britain’s banks close-minded to Open Banking? January 14, 2019 Lauded as the start of a new revolution in banking, Open Banking was expected to take the financial world by storm when it was introduced almost a year ago to the day. The set of new rules require that the big banks allow their customers to share their own transaction data with third parties. Specifically designed to open [...]
US bank Citi reports revenue fall after Wall Street’s dreadful December hits fixed income trading January 14, 2019 US bank Citi has reported a surprise fall in revenue as Wall Street’s volatile December slashed income on its bond trading division by 21 per cent. The third-largest US bank said revenues fell two per cent to $17.1bn (£13.3bn) in the three months to December, below expectations of $17.6bn. Read more: Wall Street shares plummet after [...]
DEBATE: As Open Banking turns one year old, has it been a success? January 14, 2019 As Open Banking turns one year old, has it been a success? Didier Baclin, chief innovation officer at Zopa, says YES. A year on, Open Banking has already helped many people enjoy smoother experiences with certain financial providers, by enabling them to securely share their data through the open application programming interfaces. The initiative is about [...]
Leading MP slams Lloyds Banking Group’s overdraft fee changes January 13, 2019 An influential MP has slammed Lloyds Banking Group for trying to “game the system” with its new overdraft fees. Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee, said Lloyds’ upcoming overdraft changes would increase fees for the majority of customers and went against the spirit of recent recommendations from [...]
Blackrock announces plans to cut 500 jobs as financial firms come under increasing pressure January 11, 2019 Blackrock is set to cut about three per cent of its 14,900 global workforce, or about 500 employees, as it restructures amid challenging industry conditions. The world's biggest investment group is still profitable on a margin of more than 40 per cent, but suffered a drop in share price of 24 per cent last year [...]
UK banks ‘robust’ enough to cope with no-deal Brexit, S&P Global says January 10, 2019 The UK’s major banks are robust enough to cope with a no-deal Brexit but the sector’s outlook for 2019 will hinge on Britain’s exit from the EU, S&P Global Ratings has said. The financial services firm issued a “broadly stable” rating on the UK banking system but said that view was based on an orderly [...]
Revolut rival digital bank N26 lands $300m funding round, becoming Europe’s most valuable fintech startup January 10, 2019 Digital banking startup N26 has closed the biggest funding round in European fintech in recent years, valuing the Monzo and Revolut challenger at $2.7bn (£2.1bn). The Berlin-based fintech, which offers a current account and debit card through its mobile banking app, has raised $300m in a series D round led by US venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners. [...]
EU banking watchdog calls for fresh cryptoassets regulation January 10, 2019 New rules may be needed to stop existing regulation on cryptocurrencies and digital assets from getting too diverse across the European Union, the bloc's banking watchdog said yesterday. Cryptoassets such as bitcoin, ether and tokens created in initial coin offerings (ICOs) typically fall outside of the scope of EU financial legislation, which makes it hard to [...]