Chancellor George Osborne defends bank surcharge at Treasury Select Committee grilling July 21, 2015 MPs of the Treasury Select Committee have grilled chancellor George Osborne, questioning him on a variety of issues, including the new bank tax. Led by Mark Garnier, the chancellor was asked to explain his justification for replacing the bank levy with a new surcharge. At the committee hearing, Garnier said: I welcome the change of [...]
City Moves for 26 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs April 26, 2016 Alpha FMC Asset and wealth management consultant Alpha FMC has appointed Andrew Glessing as director and head of its new dedicated compliance practice which will initially comprise nine consultants. Andrew has more than 25 years’ experience in financial services and compliance consulting. He spent seven years as manager at the Financial Conduct Authority where he [...]
RBS plans extra £150m a year spend on ailing IT systems after glitch affecting 600,000 payments at RBS, Natwest, Ulster Bank and Coutts June 18, 2015 Royal Bank of Scotland will spend another £150m a year on its ailing computer systems which this week caused havoc for RBS, Natwest and Ulster Bank customers after a glitch resulted in more than half a million missing payments. The bank's admin chief Simon McNamara today promised £150m of extra spending to make the bank's systems more [...]
£1,500 grant to be given to those affected by flooding, says Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon January 9, 2016 Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon has announced that every household, business and charity in Scotland directly affected by flooding will receive a grant of £1,500. During a visit to Inverurie in Aberdeenshire the first minister said £12m would be made available to help areas hit by flooding after rivers Dee, Don and Ythan burst their [...]
Crowdfunding platform named UK’s most active investor in private companies May 18, 2016 A crowdfunding platform has been named as the UK’s most active investor in private companies by a new report. In the first quarter of 2016, Seedrs made 37 investment deals. It was followed in second place by fellow crowdfunder, Crowdcube, which was involved in 30 deals. The Business Growth Fund was the next most active, [...]
Apple Pay launches in the UK: Where to use it, how to use it, which iPhone you need and how it works July 14, 2015 If you're the proud owner of an iPhone 6, 6 Plus or Apple Watch you can now spend your cash with little more than the flick of a wrist. Apple Pay has today launched in the UK, allowing people to use near field communication on their iPhones to tap and pay for items worth [...]
Rescued banks are not out of the woods yet: New FCA rules to improve account transparency for customers July 23, 2015 The City watchdog put more pressure on the financial sector yesterday with new rules that could see banks and building societies named and shamed for paying poor interest rates to longstanding customers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that from next year, firms will have to provide clear information on how much interest savers are paid [...]
Easter weather is going to be pretty rubbish, with heavy rain, wind, hail and even snow forecast for much of the weekend March 24, 2016 Pack your wet weather gear if you're heading off for the long weekend: the Met Office is warning that there's plenty of rain coming for the long bank holiday weekend throughout the UK. First, the good news: Good Friday will be "largely fine", with plenty of dry weather, variable amounts of cloud and even some [...]
RBS share price falls as it could face $13bn penalty over mortgage-backed securities July 3, 2015 Royal Bank of Scotland has been told it could face a $13bn (£8.3bn) bill over its behaviour before the 2008 crisis, causing shares to fall 2.1 per cent in mid-morning trading. The 79 per cent taxpayer-owned bank is involved in a long running case in a Connecticut court over how it packaged mortgage bonds and [...]
Citizens Financial income plummets 39 per cent July 21, 2015 In one of its first updates since it was spun-off from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Citizens Financial has posted results showing its income dipped 39 per cent in the second quarter. The figures It wasn't a great quarter for the US bank: earnings fell to $190m in the three months to the end of June, 39 [...]