Covid-19 note on gender: How do we prepare for A new normal which includes women equally? September 15, 2020 Helena Thernstrom works as Head of Legal for RBS’s Asset and Invoice Finance businesses where she also heads up the Bank’s gender network in London. She is a passionate and visible advocate of diversity and inclusion, including social mobility and pro-bono initiatives, and was shortlisted for the 2019 WIBF ‘Champion for Women’ award. She is [...]
Consumers choose challenger banks due to poor service on high street October 29, 2019 Poor customer service at high street banks is causing consumers to turn to challengers such as Monzo in droves, a new report has found. Read more: Monzo smashes past £2bn valuation in fresh funding round Customers are particularly peeved about the difficulty of mortgage applications and the resolution of problems, according to the report from [...]
Three problems at the top of new RBS boss Alison Rose’s to-do list November 1, 2019 Alison Rose begins life as the new boss of RBS today with her work cut out for her. In a letter to staff this morning, the RBS lifer set out her commitments, which included “a clear focus on shared success” and “investment in people”. But as the firm’s recent quarterly financial results demonstrated, there is [...]
Top 5 Reasons why Cryptocurrencies are a waste of time July 28, 2020 Cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has been around since 2009 and Ethereum since 2015. And there are thousands of other cryptocurrencies – or cryptos for short. Many of them died during the alt-coin apocalypse. Others have managed to hodl on and barely keep themselves afloat. Not every digital token is a cryptocurrency. Some are security tokens – typically [...]
PPI costs account for over half of all conduct and litigation charges at UK banks September 16, 2019 Costs from the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) has accounted for more than half of all litigation and conduct charges faced by Britain’s biggest banks in recent years. Moody’s Investors Service has said that PPI was the largest single source of conduct and litigation charges from 2011 to the first half of 2019, as [...]
Chasing “financial independence retire early” (FIRE): is it possible? March 8, 2021 At what age are you planning to retire? For many the standard answer to this is “somewhere in my 60s or beyond”. Schroders analysis suggests that if you start saving for your retirement at age 20, you’ll need to save between 12% – 15% of your salary for 40 years to retire on 50% of your [...]
Changing the childcare system is the answer to closing the gender pension gap November 7, 2019 The average monthly cost of childcare in the UK is more than the cost of the average mortgage, which serves as a stark reminder of the financial burden facing many families. Childcare costs can be so enormous that it often makes financial sense for one parent to take a career break or work part-time to [...]
How can banks factor in climate change without damaging the economy? December 5, 2019 In a few weeks, we will get the results of the UK bank stress tests, which is a measure of our biggest banks’ ability to withstand the toughest of economic shocks. In 2021, these tests will include a scenario on climate change. The regulator wants to know that our biggest financial institutions really can weather [...]
Coronavirus: UK economy could shrink by 35 per cent in second quarter April 14, 2020 The UK economy could shrink by 35 per cent in the second quarter of this year and unemployment could hit 10 per cent as coronavirus lockdown measures take a devastating toll, Britain’s budget watchdog has warned. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said such a slowdown could send the budget deficit to its highest level [...]
HSBC first quarter profit halves on coronavirus pandemic April 28, 2020 HSBC saw coronavirus rip its first quarter profit in half today as it counted a huge $2.4bn jump in credit losses as a result of the pandemic. The bank’s share price declined 1.7 per cent to 409.3p in early trading as it revealed profit before tax sank 48 per cent year on year to $3.21bn. [...]