Bank of England to set up climate change stress tests December 18, 2019 The UK’s top banks and insurers may be tested together in 2021 for the financial impact of climate change, according to a new Bank of England paper. The tests would include three different scenarios and would assess how firms would deal with more frequent weather events and mass sell-offs of “brown assets” – those considered [...]
US presses Downing Street again in ‘frank’ talks over Huawei February 20, 2020 A senior US official has met with Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings in the hope of getting the government to change its mind over Huawei’s involvement the UK’s 5G network. Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney today met with Cummings and the Prime Minister’s chief strategic adviser Eddie Lister in what sources [...]
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou details life on bail December 2, 2019 Huawei’s finance chief, who was arrested in Canada a year ago, has penned an open letter detailing her life since her arrest, which includes taking up oil painting and reading more books. Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, also thanked her supporters, saying her “heart has been warmed” by their encouragement. Read [...]
JPMorgan Chase buys second building in Paris as it shifts teams from London January 20, 2020 JPMorgan Chase today announced plans to buy a building in Paris to house up to 450 more staff. The acquisition of the additional seven-storey building in central Paris is part of a wider move to bolster the bank’s operations in France. JPMorgan Chase plans to move over its sales teams and then its trading operations, [...]
UK businesses call for government help amid coronavirus outbreak March 5, 2020 Businesses big and small have called for urgent action from the government to help deal with the burden of sick pay amid the coronavirus outbreak and to ensure low-paid and part-time workers are supported. The intervention from business groups came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised statutory sick pay (SSP) from day one for all [...]
Authorities raid Greek banks in collusion probe November 8, 2019 Greece’s biggest banks have been raided by authorities, the country’s watchdog said today. The head offices of National Bank, Eurobank, Alpha Bank, Attica Bank and the Greek bank association were all searched by inspectors as part of an investigation. Read more: HSBC receives second Bank of England warning Bankers told Reuters that the offices had [...]
RBS launches ‘social bond’ for deprived areas November 8, 2019 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched a “social bond” aimed at boosting lending within deprived areas of the UK. The banking giant announced this morning that the bond would be linked to roughly £2.5bn of lending to small firms in disadvantaged areas. Read more: HSBC receives second warning from Bank of England An [...]
PPI, profit drop, and a mixed 2020: Five takeaways from Lloyds’ results February 20, 2020 Lloyds reported a 26 per cent drop in annual profit on Thursday, with Britain’s largest domestic lender hit by a rise in bad debts and billions of pounds of customer compensation payout. Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said the results demonstrated a “solid financial performance in a challenging external market”, but analysts have described them as [...]
What’s in store for the airline industry this winter? October 30, 2020 Although every industry has suffered due to the coronavirus pandemic, few have been as hard hit as the world’s airlines. At the beginning of the year, the idea of a world without global air travel was for most people a relic of a long-forgotten past, but seven months of extreme turbulence have flipped that notion [...]
De La Rue reveals turnaround plan to slash £35m of costs a year February 25, 2020 Banknote printer De La Rue today revealed its plan to cut £35m in annual costs after it lost a battle to print Britain’s post-Brexit blue passports. Shares soared 20.5 per cent to 147.2p as investors welcomed the plan. The company said it has already slashed £10m in annual costs, and it will target a yearly [...]