The European Commission revisits the conditions it imposed on the bank after its financial crisis bailout. A plan to resolve RBS’s final £835m state aid commitment has been agreed by the UK Government and the EU Commission. RBS will fund measures to improve the UK business banking market and boost competition. The measures will also […]
New York titan Goldman Sachs is looking to target retail clients in the U with a new savings account. The investment bank recently launched a mass market offering in the US, and is now looking to replicate its high-interest online savings accounts, and potentially a digital consumer-lending platform, in the UK, according to Goldman’s head […]
Deutsche Bank’s chief executive John Cryan has called for the European Central Bank to move towards tightening monetary policy ahead of its meeting in Frankfurt tomorrow. Cryan added that he sees Frankfurt as the prime location for a financial hub as the Brexit process prompts banks to relocate from London. “The era of cheap money […]
Morgan Stanley has placed one in three odds that Jeremy Corbyn will be the UK prime minister by the end of next year as divisions among the Conservatives over soft versus hard Brexit trigger elections in the second half of 2018. The major US bank predicts a two in three chance the UK faces a […]
The Bank of England has agreed to pay some of its workers more after strike action by members of the union Unite. Unite today announced that its members had accepted the deal, which also sees Bank staff get extra annual leave. Earlier this year Unite members of the Bank’s maintenance, security and parlour teams voted to […]
Non-domiciled taxpayers in Britain paid more than £9bn to the Exchequer in 2014/15, an increase of 1 per cent from the previous financial year. Figures released by HMRC yesterday show that 121,300 listed non-doms paid £9.3bn of income, capital gains tax and national insurance. HMRC has never before released such data about non-doms, according to […]
Monetary Policy Committee member Michael Saunders has called for a “modest rise” in interest rates to control inflation. Saunders, a key member of the MPC for the past year, said in a speech in Cardiff that an increase in rates would “help ensure a sustainable return of inflation to target over time”, the BBC reports. John […]
Lloyds Banking Group will soon sell off its London headquarters, according to reports. The bank stands to make £140 to £150m from a sale and leaseback deal on its 25 Gresham Street City office, according to the Financial Times. While the paper reports that Lloyds is likely to stay in the building under a long […]
More than four in five pension funds are concerned about the gap in pay between executives and staff at listed companies, according to a new survey. Research from trade body the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association showed 84 per cent expressed concerns over the gap in salaries. 86 per cent said they thought the pay […]
The US Department of Justice has charged two managers at French bank Société Générale for their alleged role in a Libor manipulation scheme. The bank’s global head of treasury Danielle Sindzingre, and Paris head of treasury Muriel Bescond have been charged with one count of conspiracy to transmit false reports impacting commodity market information and […]
The UK is officially the slowest growing economy in the G7 with GDP growth for Q2 confirmed at 0.3 per cent in the second estimate, according to the ONS. When the first estimate was released a month ago, the figure of 0.3 per cent growth was described as “muddling through”. The UK comes in behind Italy […]
Provident yesterday reported it anticipates losses of between £80m and £120m on the back of a drop in debt collection rates
3 January 2018. Mark the date in your diaries if you haven’t already. It’s the day that the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive takes effect in UK law. That’s only three months away. But it’s no reason at all to panic, as our cover story this week, which takes stock of how the sector […]
Mario Draghi brought a surfeit of pessimism to the Jackson Hole meeting of central bankers. He argued that the 2 per cent trend rate of growth for the OECD rich countries prior to the banking crash of 2008 has now halved to a trend rate of around just 1 per cent. Recognising that even the Eurozone […]
Provident will now not pay an interim dividend and says a full-year dividend is unlikely
European Central Bank policy makers warned that further rises in the euro could impact on the region’s recovery, with the currency falling to its lowest level this month shortly after. The ECB’s latest interest rate-setting meeting expressed concerns about the euro, which had hit a two-and-a-half year high against the dollar. The euro then dropped $1.1661 […]
Unite union claims bank is planning to cut IT jobs in London by 40 per cent by 2020
Helping clients to make the right choices for regular savings and lump sum investment is one of the key roles of financial planners. Making the wrong choices can cause serious financial detriment and this consequence, together with relative complexity over the choices and difficulty in “self-serving” the answers, are, in my view, the three key […]
Bank moves to quell bond liquidity fears in the wake of property funds saga
Investors should capture performance in the good times, but also manage risks in our challenging global economic and political environment When a letter signed by Prime Minister Theresa May was delivered to President of the European Council Donald Tusk at the end of March, it formally triggered the now-famous Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and started the […]
Data that shows the appetite for UK equities is back has left analysts and investors wondering whether the asset class has pulled through its Brexit slump. UK equity funds saw net retail sales of £114m in November, their first inflow of 2016. They had suffered £5.1bn outflows since the previous January, £3.8bn of which followed […]
Mortgage market experts expect this year will bring consumer confidence worries, a boom in specialist lending, an increased regulatory burden and suppressed transactions. But they also showed a marked confidence about the future of the sector. Association of Mortgage Intermediaries chief executive Robert Sinclair says he hopes lenders keep lending and consumer confidence remains high. He […]
The domestic policy agenda means that the financial services industry faces another busy year of consultation and regulatory change in 2017. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the assured leadership of Andrew Bailey continues to consult on its future Mission. Key themes that have arisen through the consultation include clarity on the sense of direction […]
From endless trade disputes to long drawn out speeches from unelected bureaucrats clinging desperately to power – there are some stark similarities between the Star Wars saga and the EU. But as Disney’s latest instalment cleans up at the box office, Prime Minister May has her own cabinet rogues to keep under control. Whether its […]
What an auspicious time to be writing about fixed income. The UK 10-year gilt yield almost touched an incredible 0.5 per cent in August after the Bank of England provided its monetary response to the EU referendum result. At the time of writing, the yield stands at 1.45 per cent, removing all the price gains […]
The recent Conservative Party Conference caused me to conclude (without amazing insight on my part, I must add) that the new Government is quite different from our last one. Fundamentally different. The world it is operating in is different. Thanks to the outcome of the EU referendum it is an even more uncertain one […]
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We have heard very little recently of the Chancellor’s friend but fiscal drag has been beavering away largely unnoticed, raising or saving money for him. Fiscal drag raises extra money when tax allowances do not rise with inflation. That brings more people into the scope of paying that tax and more money for the Chancellor. […]
Changes in the way long-term care is paid for was the dog that did not bark in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement. It failed to get even a mention, despite many telling us there is a crisis in long-term care for older people. There have been calls for tax subsidies for those who save […]
It appears Prime Minister Theresa May has decided to put an industrial strategy at the centre of her “Government for everyone, not just the privileged few”. While it has been confirmed this is not about the Government “picking winners”, I am curious as to what exactly this strategy will be. It may be that once […]