TSB promises to stay out of glamorous banking September 9, 2013 NEW HIGH street lender TSB will not lend to “large corporations, foreign speculators, or get involved in complicated derivatives,” its new chief said yesterday as part of its plan to promote local banking. At a branch opening on Baker Street, Paul Pester said the bank’s key selling point will be transparency. That means it will [...]
Why capital rules could limit the impact of new competition in banking September 9, 2013 THE NEW TSB bank was finally launched yesterday. The spin-off of 631 branches and 4.6m customers from Lloyds means that the UK now has the first new major competitor to the existing banks since the start of the financial crisis. And when RBS spins off 315 of its branches, Britain will have a further mid-size [...]
TSB opens doors as bank prepares Lloyds spin off September 8, 2013 THE NEW TSB Bank will open its doors to customers this morning, as the spin-off from Lloyds Banking Group unveils its rebranded high-street sites. When it is fully sold off from Lloyds, the 632 branches will represent a new competitor on the high street and has pledged to focus on local, traditional retail banking. Its [...]
Former Co-op boss in row over bank bid warning claims September 4, 2013 THE FORMER boss of the Co-operative Bank yesterday claimed he warned the bank of “disaster” if it tried to buy 632 Lloyds branches in the middle of other major projects to shake up how the lender worked, but was ignored by the board. Ex-chief executive Neville Richardson also claimed he had no responsibility for the [...]
Former Co-op Bank boss says his warnings over Verde branch deal were ignored September 4, 2013 Former Co-op Bank chief executive Neville Richardson has said that the failed Verde branches deal "was the right deal at the wrong times" and that "the board and CEO of Co-op Group at that time did not accept my warnings and were determined to press ahead. That is why I stepped down." Richardson said that [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 03 September 2013 September 2, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Dering Capital leads race for TDF Blackstone Group’s former top executive in Asia has emerged as the leading contender to buy the French assets of Europe’s largest telecoms tower operator TDF in a deal worth up to €3.8bn (£3.22bn). Dering Capital, started by Ben Jenkins after he left the US private equity group [...]
Why UK recovery could rescue the great British banking sector sell-off September 2, 2013 ROLL up, roll up. Britain’s banks are up for sale. This month and next, the Lloyds privatisation will compete for attention with Barclays’s £5.8bn rights issue. Then there’s the initial public offering triplets: Williams & Glyn, Virgin Money and TSB – all set to hit the market with aplomb. And that’s before RBS has turned [...]
Co-op gets tough with an ultimatum to investors August 29, 2013 SMALL investors in the Co-op bank must agree to take losses on their bonds or risk the bank being closed or sold, executives said yesterday as they revealed group pre-tax losses of £559m for the first half of the year. Much of those losses came from the bank – the trading group business made a [...]
Bottom Line: Group is right to hang onto its best assets August 29, 2013 THE COMPARISON that Niall Booker drew yesterday with the banking behemoths of the crisis years was stark – just like Lloyds and RBS, the Co-op’s banking arm has got itself into a mess, and it’s going to take years to get out. So with many months of pain ahead of them, it’s not difficult to [...]
Co-op bank won’t be healed for at least four years August 29, 2013 Niall Booker, chief executive of the Co-operative Bank has said that the bank will take at least four years to get into decent shape. That's if the bank is able to heal at all. Booker said that the process is going to take some time, pointing at state-backed Lloyds and RBS banks were returning them [...]