Week ahead: City braces for more bumper banker bonuses

Investors are preparing to comb through the details of British high lenders’ results this week for any clues that higher interest rates are goosing their bottom lines.

UK banks’ earning season has been underlined by a jump in bonuses for top deal makers which are expected to continue this week.

Barclays, the last remaining British bank with a large investment banking arm, is expected to announce a significantly larger bonus pool for its top brass when it publishes results on Wednesday.

HSBC, the UK’s largest lender and reports final results on Wednesday, is also predicted to ramp up goodies for its senior staff. 

Lloyds caps off earnings season on Thursday. The bank’s profits are likely to have been boosted by last year’s red hot property market.

Government borrowing figures, published on Tuesday, will shed more light on the damage inflation is inflicting on the public purse.

The government’s debt servicing bill is expected to swell again due to the retail price index, the measure of inflation used to calculate changes in interest charged on the UK’s stock of debt, climbing to historically high levels.

However, a surge in self-employed Brits filing their tax returns in January will artificially boost the government’s finances.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank are pencilling in a £3.5bn surplus for January.

Fears over a deterioration in the Russia-Ukraine saga will loom over the City this week.

The FTSE 100 registered its worst week since November last week, dropping nearly two per cent as investors were spooked by the possibility of Moscow invading Ukraine.