John Lewis boss talks about “the Midlands Engine” and why Birmingham is the next major economic hub March 15, 2016 John Lewis boss Andy Street says Brum is booming, as he talks up the city in Cannes. Andy Street may be better known as managing director of one of the UK's biggest department stores John Lewis, but the Brummie born and bred was in Cannes donning a different cap today, promoting his home town as [...]
City heavyweights join shadow business secretary Angela Eagle to decide the corporate winners of this year’s LGBT Awards April 6, 2016 Distinguished business figures met in the capital today to decide the British LGBT Awards corporate winners The judging panel, made up illustrious names across the banking, finance and legal sectors, met up with shadow business secretary Angela Eagle to pick out winners for an array of gongs that praise the hard work done by Square Mile staffers [...]
Nigel Farage: The Remain campaign is trying to scare you April 29, 2016 Nigel Farage has warned that the Remain campaign is increasingly using scare tactics to persuade voters to stay in the EU – as he suggested food and cars will be cheaper in the case of Brexit In a wide-ranging speech, Farage accused the Remain campaign of a "remorseless torrent of propaganda scaring us", adding that "all sorts of [...]
At the open: European markets tumble, but the pound prances on May 3, 2016 European markets opened down this morning as traders consolidated positions ahead of a glut of corporate results this week. The FTSE 100 shot up by 16 points as bank holiday weekend trades become official, but then immediately plunged to stand down 0.4 per cent at 6,214 within the first hour of trading. Over in Germany, [...]
Banking bazooka? CMA report great for fintech, costly for banks August 9, 2016 The competition watchdog has today handed fintech startups a bazooka for their mission of disrupting banks, with new rules for making data more open to improve customer choice. The so-called big four – HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland – and other smaller high street banks will have to work together to create standards for sharing [...]
HSBC plans to slash headcount and faces three new US lawsuits June 1, 2015 HSBC is set to announce plans to cut thousands of jobs across its global workforce next week. Stuart Gulliver, HSBC’s chief executive, will set out a revised target for headcount reductions that will be implemented by the end of 2017 at a investor day next week, according to Sky News. HSBC declined to comment. The precise [...]
HSBC job cuts: Unions slam move as punishing staff for “boardroom misconduct” June 9, 2015 Could Canary Wharf become a stage for the next major picket line? HSBC staff cuts have been blasted by unions, claiming the bank's employees are being “punished for boardroom misconduct”. This morning Europe's biggest bank revealed it was cutting up to 25,000 jobs worldwide, as it looks to make $5bn (£3.25bn) savings. Around [...]
HSBC profits rise as investment banking rebounds May 5, 2015 The figures Britain's biggest bank beat analyst expectations this morning, posting profit before tax of $7bn (£4.6bn) for the first three months of 2015, up from $6.8bn (£4.5bn) a year earlier. Reported revenue came in at $15.9bn (£10.5bn) for the first quarter of 2015, broadly unchanged from the same time last year. It added that reported operating expenses [...]
Barclays customers can now use Apple Pay… finally April 5, 2016 It's been a long old wait, but Barclays has finally jumped on board the Apple Pay bandwagon. Barclays is the last of the major banks to support Apple Pay in the UK, letting customers pay with just the swipe of their iPhone or Apple Watch. “Since we introduced contactless to the UK in 2007, it’s [...]
Mega fines for the UK banking industry might be about to end April 26, 2016 The era of multi-billion pound fines, compensation payouts and litigation charges for UK banks could be drawing to a close, one of the world's leading ratings agencies has said today. In a new report that is sure to make for welcome reading in City boardrooms, Standard and Poor's (S&P) said that 2016 will be the final [...]