Bank shares and stress tests: the value investor’s verdict December 8, 2016 The Bank of England’s latest stress tests of the UK banking system attracted many column inches of space in the newspapers last week. The aim was to calculate whether these institutions would have enough capital to withstand certain grim scenarios. Moving away from some of the inflammatory headlines, it is worth looking in more detail [...]
MoneySupermarket.com chief executive checks out on a high with profits jump August 3, 2016 Profits have leapt at price comparison website MoneySupermarket.com in the first half of the year, but shares dropped at the open as its chief executive announced his intention to step down from the company. The results Profits before tax came in at £47.1m in the first six months of the year for the website, up [...]
Poundworld secures £50m loan from Santander to fund its expansion November 10, 2015 Poundworld has secured a £50m loan from its banks to help fund its expansion, just months after private equity firm TPG snapped up a majority stake in the bargain chain. The value retailer said the five-year loan provided by Santander Corporate Bank will help the group meet its target of opening 60 new stores a year across the UK on top of [...]
Financial watchdog to set deadline for PPI complaints before the end of June 2019 August 2, 2016 The financial regulator today said it was moving forward with proposals for a payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints deadline, as it looks to draw a line under the costliest financial scandal ever to hit the UK's banks. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last year proposed a deadline of spring 2018, however today the watchdog said a deadline [...]
City Moves for 4 May 2016 | Who’s switching jobs May 4, 2016 Marsh Marsh, the insurance broker and risk adviser and a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, has announced that Abbey Sturrock has joined the firm’s political risk and structured credit practice as a senior vice president within the public agency group. Based in London, Abbey will be responsible for delivering Marsh’s market-leading advisory [...]
Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam blames Brexit vote on poor British education and calls for higher taxes to fund UK schools July 3, 2016 Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam has blamed the UK's decision to leave the EU on a lack of investment in British education. Speaking at a business conference in southern France on Sunday, Thiam recalled a visit to a school in Tower Hamlets where he found out that around half of the children only ate once a day. [...]
Fintech boom means Brexit won’t hurt exports June 14, 2016 Exporting can be a powerful driver of business growth, and small and medium-sized enterprises that sell overseas often find themselves more successful in their domestic market as a result of what they learn from exporting. So, I was disheartened to see at a recent seminar hosted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, that only around 20 per [...]
The great Deutsche Bank sale begins as bailout rumours continue to swirl September 28, 2016 Deutsche Bank sold one of its less core businesses today, prompting speculation that more asset sales are on the cards at the troubled German lender as it faces the prospect of a multi-billion pound US fine. The bank agreed to sell British insurance business Abbey Life to Phoenix, which will bring in nearly £1bn in capital. [...]
Tidjane Thiam facing a second consecutive quarterly loss at Credit Suisse May 8, 2016 Tidjane Thiam is set to come under more pressure this week when Credit Suisse reports its first-quarter results. Thiam took over as chief executive of the bank from insurance group Prudential last July. Since then, Credit Suisse's share price has plummeted by around 50 per cent to $14 (£9.70). [charts-share-price id="250"] Read more: Credit Suisse braces for bumpy road ahead The [...]
Trading suspended in Barclays and RBS as European bank shares crash June 27, 2016 Trading in bank shares was temporarily suspended on multiple occasions today as the value of European lenders tumbled in response to the vote to leave the EU. Financial giants Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) both fell more than 18 per cent by lunchtime as markets increasingly turned on stocks perceived to be most at risk from prolonged uncertainty [...]