RBS cuts stake in US with $3bn Citizens sale March 23, 2015 RBS WILL cut its stake in US bank Citizens to below half this week, as it yesterday announced plans to sell off more shares in the lender. The bailed-out British bank is cutting down its overseas presence to focus on the UK market. It floated Citizens on the New York Stock Exchange six months ago, [...]
City Moves for 27 February 2015 | Who’s switching jobs February 26, 2015 Octopus Investments The fund management firm has appointed Richard Wazacz as business line manager for venture capital trusts. He was formerly corporate development director for UK and Europe at Prudential. Wazacz has also held senior positions at Lloyds Banking Group. BLP The law firm has appointed Daniyal Ansari as partner in its real estate finance [...]
Bottom Line: Don’t expect glorious returns buying TSB May 27, 2014 NO BANK wants to be exciting or glamorous any more – and particularly not one that needs to attract new investors. TSB is highlighting its long history as a 200 year old bank with roots in local savings. Its goals sound more like those of a very sober and old fashioned building society than those of [...]
Retail investors to get TSB stake by end of June May 1, 2014 LLOYDS will sell a chunk of as much as 40 per cent of spun-off bank TSB by the end of June, the state-backed bank revealed yesterday. Retail investors will be able to buy shares through brokers as part of the sale, as well as institutional investors. The final terms of the sale are being arranged [...]
“Big four” banks’ small business lending placed under official investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority November 6, 2014 Britain’s biggest banks are to be thrust under the microscope by a watchdog launching an in-depth investigation into personal current accounts and small business lending. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) believes the UK retail banking sector is failing its customers through a "crippling lack of competition and transparency". HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking [...]
More money in your pocket: Tumbling oil prices, £1 a litre petrol, supermarket price wars and mortgage provider competition January 12, 2015 Britons should be able to loosen their purse strings further this year, with tumbling oil prices, a supermarket price war and intense competition between mortgage providers forcing down the average cost of living. Supermarket chains Morrisons and Sainsbury’s – which together operate over 600 petrol stations – will both cut the price of unleaded petrol [...]
Inside Track: TSB and Saga lead the way in a retail investor return May 1, 2014 SO AT last there’s some cheer for the retail investor, whose presence in the new issues market has recently been all but forgotten by those in charge of floating companies on the London market. Much of the euphoria surrounding the retail stampede for shares in Royal Mail, which was supposed to herald a new beginning [...]
How the Co-op’s botched deal has cut TSB out of half of the mortgage market May 27, 2014 New high street bank TSB can only access half of the mortgage market because it does not have the systems in place to sell through mortgage brokers, chief executive Paul Pester said today – and it is thanks to the Co-op’s botched attempt to buy the lender. As 40 to 50 per cent of [...]
FTSE 100 closes 0.3 per cent up (but fell 2.7 per cent in 2014) December 31, 2014 The FTSE 100 ended the year at 6,566.09 points, 0.3 per cent higher than yesterday's close, as trading ended early on New Year's Eve. However, the index was 2.7 per cent down on the beginning of the year, as equities were rocked by headwinds from global markets. Alastair McCraig, a market analyst at IG, pointed [...]
MPs take aim at regulators on Co-op Bank October 22, 2014 EX-CITY regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) should be probed as part of the investigation into the near-collapse of the Co-op Bank and the failed attempt to sell it TSB, MPs said in a report today. The Treasury Select Committee also wants the whole process of auditing banks to be investigated by the Financial Reporting Council, which [...]