Darktrace is now worth $500m and has IPO ambitions October 3, 2016 One of the UK's hottest tech startups is now worth half a billion dollars and has ambitions to go public, City A.M can exclusively reveal. Darktrace, the cyber security startup which boasts backing from top Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Wall Street investors and former Autonomy entrepreneur Mike Lynch, was valued at $450m after a major round [...]
Happy Brexiversary – these are the funds that have performed the worst since the EU referendum September 23, 2016 It's been three months since the Brexit vote. A lot has happened – but some of the worst hit (apart from David Cameron and George Osborne) were property funds. Several funds were forced to block withdrawals after the Brexit vote – closing the gate on £15bn-£20bn worth of funds – because investors were taking out so much money; several more imposed fair [...]
HSBC sorts computer glitch and completes all delayed payments August 29, 2015 HSBC announced today that it has sorted out the computer glitch that resulted in 275,000 payments being delayed yesterday. The bank, which suffered a problem with its BACS payment system, left thousands of customers worrying that they would have no money over the Bank Holiday weekend. Those affected included HSBC account holders expecting [...]
Lloyds, HSBC, First Direct warn Apple Pay users: Storing other people’s fingerprints is like “giving out your pin” November 3, 2015 Store your spouse’s fingerprint on your phone? You could be in for a nasty surprise. UK banks are warning customers against the practice, announcing that if you wish to use Apple Pay, you must delete other people’s prints. Lloyds’ customers are warned in the bank’s terms and conditions: If Touch ID is available on your [...]
Foreign exchange trading flops as London loses market share, according to the Bank for International Settlements September 1, 2016 Foreign exchange trading around the world has fallen over the course of three years, with London in particular losing market share. Global foreign exchange trading averaged $5.1 trillion (£3.8 trillion) a day in April, down from $5.4 trillion for the same month in 2013. It is the first time a fall has been recorded by the Bank for International Settlement's [...]
Time to remortgage? The rates on two-year fixed deals are very low, but watch out for additional fees October 27, 2016 Brexit has been kind to mortgage holders. As the Bank of England’s interest rate has come down, banks have been able to borrow more cheaply, allowing competition to increase and mortgage rates to fall. Borrowers have been quick to take advantage of the deals on offer; in August, the number of people remortgaging hit a [...]
How have bank share prices reacted to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) retail banking investigation? August 9, 2016 Investors were decidedly nonplussed by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA)'s recommendations for an "open banking" revolution in the UK's retail banking sector this morning. Share prices at London-listed organisations moved in most directions, with the big lenders slightly outperforming the market, but challengers heading both up and down – suggesting traders aren't convinced the CMA's work [...]
Beta version of pensions dashboard due by next March after Treasury signs agreement with 11 largest insurers September 11, 2016 A prototype of the government's long-awaited pensions dashboard is due to be ready by March next year, after the UK's biggest pension providers gave the project a green light. The Treasury has secured an agreement from the 11 groups, including Aviva, HSBC, Royal London, Standard Life and Zurich, to build the prototype, while the Association [...]
Thomson Reuters is the latest to join this major blockchain consortium August 2, 2016 Thomson Reuters is the latest financial institution to join one of the major consortiums working on blockchain technology, joining several of the world's biggest banks. The global firm is joining R3, the group which is spearheading efforts to standardise blockchain technology and now counts more than 40 members, including Barclays, HSBC and Goldman Sachs. Read more: The UK [...]
Banks’ share prices dip after FCA announces PPI deadline August 2, 2016 UK bank stocks dipped in early trading today, after the City watchdog announced that it was pushing back its deadline for payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it plans to set a cut-off point for PPI claims that will fall by the end of June 2019 at the latest. Previously, banks had been [...]