Pound sinks to 11-month low after Liam Fox’s no deal Brexit warning August 17, 2018 The pound has fallen to its lowest in 11 months this morning, following warnings over the weekend by international trade secretary Liam Fox that it was now more likely the UK would leave the EU without a deal. Sterling fell 0.3 per cent to $1.2954, its lowest since July 19, making it the biggest loser [...]
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development plans to remain in London after Brexit August 17, 2018 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to stay in London after Brexit, in spite of the departure of other agencies with a remit covering Europe. The partly EU-owned development bank is considering a move out of its offices overlooking Exchange Square, by Liverpool Street Station, but will remain in London if [...]
StanChart reports profit surge as Winters’ restructuring takes hold July 31, 2018 Standard Chartered has unveiled a 34 per cent rise in pretax profit for the six months to June and issued an interim dividend, as the Asia-focused bank continued to grow its revenue after years of restructuring. However StanChart's share price fell 3.6 per cent on the back of the increasing cost of digitising the bank. [...]
MPs accuse Lloyds of treating HBOS Reading fraud victims ‘with contempt’ July 30, 2018 A group of MPs has written to Lloyds Banking Group accusing it of treating victims of a fraud carried out by members of its Reading branch “with contempt”. The chair of the all party group parliamentary group on fair business banking Kevin Hollinrake MP wrote an open letter to the bank’s chair Lord Blackwell today, [...]
Lloyds loses mortgage market share as HSBC and RBS rise July 18, 2018 Lloyds lost market share in UK mortgages last year as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HSBC and a host of challengers gained, according to new data published today. Competitors to Lloyds bit off almost one per cent of their market share, which fell from 22.1 per cent to 21.2 per cent of mortgage balances outstanding [...]
Fintech company Revolut contacted police and regulator over money laundering worries July 17, 2018 Digital banking fintech Revolut called in police and regulators in the last few months after finding suspected money laundering on its system. Revolut contacted the National Crime Agency and City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority after finding the suspected payments. Read more: Revolut launches Connect, its open banking enterprise marketplace The digital challenger bank was [...]
TSB customers hit by further mobile banking outages July 14, 2018 Customers of TSB have faced further technical problems today with the bank’s mobile banking application. The bank, which has endured a torrid time since it migrated its customer records to a new IT platform built by its Spanish parent company Sabadell. Problems with the migration led to significant issues for customers trying to access mobile [...]
EU Commission and Bank of England fire latest shots in City’s Brexit contracts row July 11, 2018 The EU’s top financial services boss today contradicted warnings over a potential catastrophe involving trillions of pounds of contracts, as a Bank of England boss suggested that political concerns had affected European regulators’ stance in the latest stage of a row over Brexit preparations. EU financial services commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis today said that financial contracts [...]
Six months into Open Banking, how is it going? July 11, 2018 For the superstitious among us, this Friday 13 will be a day for avoiding ladders and black cats. For the hyper-political, it will be a day to keep an eye on Donald Trump’s first visit to the UK as US President. But arguably more excitingly, Friday marks six months since the go-live date of the [...]
Bank of Cyprus offloads UK subsidiary for £103m to ‘Cynergy’ consortium July 10, 2018 The Bank of Cyprus has agreed to sell its UK banking operations to a consortium of investors in a £103m deal. The all-cash sale, which will complete by the end of the year, comes as Bank of Cyprus refocuses its efforts on the Cypriot economy. The lender was bailed out in 2013 by European authorities, [...]