Starling boss Boden marks quadrupling of bank’s profits with barbs at fintech peers January 6, 2023 Digital bank Starling said it expects to more than quadruple its profits to £120m and ramp up a hiring spree this year as it becomes the latest lender to be buoyed by rising interest rates and a surge in borrowing.
Watchdog blocks Lloyds’ unfair treatment of Covid-hit firms September 8, 2020 The competition watchdog has stopped Lloyds Bank from forcing small business customers to open business current accounts when taking out bounce back loans. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has accused Lloyds of “bundling” loans and business current accounts for small companies. Bundling is where a bank requires small business customers to open a current [...]
Payouts from government’s Covid-19 lending programmes hit £62bn October 22, 2020 The total value of loans paid out under the government’s coronavirus business lending schemes hit almost £62bn last week, new data showed. UK banks had lent a total of £61.9bn to businesses struggling with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as of 18 October, up from £57.3bn the previous month, according to figures from the [...]
Government coronavirus business loans total nears £52bn August 11, 2020 The government has lent nearly £52bn to businesses via its emergency coronavirus loans funding schemes as companies try to weather the pandemic-triggered downturn. Data released by the Treasury today showed the total lent to businesses had hit £51.7bn by 9 August. The bounce back loan scheme (BBLS) accounted for £34.96bn with 1,157,296 facilities approved and [...]
Boris Johnson doubles support for self-employed during new lockdown November 2, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a doubling of support for the self-employed during England’s new coronavirus lockdown and an extension of the deadline for government-backed business loans. Johnson addressed the House of Commons this afternoon after announcing a month-long lockdown on Saturday. MPs will vote on the new measures on Wednesday, with both Labour [...]
Mark Kleinman: This licence to print money may soon run out of road April 6, 2023 How’s that licence to print money going? Not so well if you’re a long-standing investor in De La Rue, the authentication and currency specialist which has managed to squander a market-leading position and hundreds of millions of pounds in shareholder value. Oberthur Technologies, its French-based peer, tabled an indicative offer in 2010 worth 905p-a-share, or [...]
Bank and government support to UK firms tops £100bn September 22, 2020 Struggling UK companies have now received more than £100bn worth of support from banks and the government through various coronavirus stimulus schemes, official figures have shown. UK banks have lent out more than £58bn to hard-hit companies through the government-backed coronavirus loan schemes, according to Treasury figures out today. HMRC figures showed that companies have [...]
FCA amps up crackdown on coronavirus-related fraud October 6, 2020 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has ramped up efforts to crack down on coronavirus-related fraud during the pandemic through the rollout of two new sandbox services. Sandboxes allow companies to innovate new products without being subject to usual regulation, allowing them to test financial services before developing them globally. The FCA’s two new sandboxes, launched [...]
Government to extend coronavirus loan schemes as cases jump September 21, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to extend the government’s coronavirus loans schemes in an effort to protect the UK economy during a possible second wave of Covid infections. The four business loans schemes will be extended for applications until the end of November, the Financial Times reported. Banks will be allowed to process the loans [...]
Banks blasted over ‘disappointingly slow’ pace of lending as coronavirus loans hit £5.5bn May 7, 2020 Banks have lent over £5.5bn to SMEs through the CBILS scheme but a leading industry body has said the process is still too slow. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the improvement in the number of firms accessing CBILS is welcome. However, head of economics Suren Thiru said that with many firms “only having [...]