Barclays advises government on latest student loans sell-off push January 12, 2017 Bankers have been appointed by the government as it seeks to sell-off up to £12bn-worth of student loans. Ministers are preparing to kick-off the latest sale of loans issued to students before 2012, and Morning Wire has learned Barclays is advising on the deal. The Treasury announced in last year’s Autumn Statement that it was continuing to [...]
Unicredit shareholders approve Italy’s largest ever rights issue of €13bn January 12, 2017 Shareholders at Unicredit have today given the thumbs up to the bank's €13bn rights issue. Italy's largest bank announced the country's largest ever rights issue last month in a bid to rebalance its finances as part of its ongoing turnaround plan, with the shares set to be issued by June. The bank's investors today granted the lender [...]
Hays finance chief says Brexit uncertainty makes hiring overseas a logical choice for City firms January 12, 2017 The UK’s largest recruitment firm said City firms would choose job creation in Germany or France ahead of Britain while Brexit uncertainty remains. Hays revealed trading in the UK, which represents around a quarter of its global operations, had fallen for the second quarter in a row, down 10 per cent on a like-for-like basis [...]
Banks could pull in more customers if they offered insurance, survey suggests January 12, 2017 A survey released today contains a potential solution for banking bosses worried about falling customer numbers: start offering insurance products. The figures from marketing specialist Collinson Group found consumers typically hold four different insurance products from three different providers . Almost two thirds (63 per cent) are sick of the split and would much prefer a [...]
Brexit research group calls for bespoke equivalence deal to give financial sector access to Single Market January 12, 2017 A Brexit research group is calling for the government to consider striking a bespoke equivalence agreement as part of the EU departure deal to maintain access to the Single Market for the financial sector. In a report published today, which was compiled by law firm Norton Rose Fulbright on behalf of the Financial Services Negotiation [...]
FTSE’s 12-day winning run sets record January 11, 2017 London's top share index hit a fresh all-time high yesterday, setting a record for the longest winning streak in FTSE 100 history. The blue-chip benchmark soared above 7,326 during intra-day trading, before settling at 7,290.49 by the close. The FTSE got a boost from the falling pound early in the day, when official figures revealed [...]
Accused ex-Barclays trader was given no legal guidance by employer, lawyer says January 11, 2017 The lawyer for an ex-Barclays trader facing forex-fixing claims in the US has hit back at the trader's former employer for not giving him enough guidance on the law. Chris Ashton was late last night charged by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) with conspiring to fix prices and rig bids in the foreign exchange [...]
Ditched auditor brought back to investigate Tesco Bank hack January 11, 2017 Tesco has turned to its former auditor, which it axed after more than 30 years in the wake of a profit blackhole, to investigate a cyber attack on its bank. PwC was brought in by Tesco Bank to investigate an attack in November which forced it to repay £2.5m to customers who had been targeted by [...]
Bank of England governor Mark Carney reaffirms Brexit no longer the biggest risk to UK’s financial stability January 11, 2017 The governor of the Bank of England confirmed today that Brexit is not the biggest risk to the UK's financial stability. Speaking in front of the Treasury Select Committee, Mark Carney said that it was the opinion of the Bank that the biggest risks to the UK's financial system were global ones. "[Brexit] has some [...]
Lloyds, TSB and Halifax’s online banking systems are back after an outage January 11, 2017 Twitter was a-ring with annoyed Lloyds, Halifax and TSB customers this afternoon, after the online banking systems of all three went down. Customers said they were unable to access their accounts either online or in their app. Although TSB is no longer owned by Lloyds Banking Group, its systems were also affected. @AskLloydsBank being down [...]