Natwest unveils £5bn coronavirus support package for small businesses March 9, 2020 Natwest today said it will pledge £5bn of funding to support small and medium-sized businesses across the UK amid disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The bank, which recently rebranded from RBS, said the cash injection will mark an extension of its existing growth funding package, which is designed to help companies that have been [...]
London economy’s post-election bounce continues March 9, 2020 London’s private sector grew strongly in February, survey data has shown, even as the coronavirus outbreak took its toll on tourism. The Natwest/IHS Markit London purchasing managers’ index posted 56 in February, down slightly from 56.5 in January but stronger than the long-run average. A score of above 50 indicates that the private sector expanded. [...]
Five things you need to know about HSBC’s radical overhaul strategy February 18, 2020 Banking giant HSBC today launched one of the most radical strategic overhauls by a blue-chip lender in the past decade in a bid to revitalise its stuttering operations. HSBC is seeking to slash annual costs by $4.5bn and shed $100bn of assets by 2022 in a bid to keep pace with leaner and more focused [...]
HSBC: Profit plunges as bank plans 35,000 job cuts February 18, 2020 HSBC has outlined plans to offload $100bn (£77bn) of assets and dramatically downsize its investment banking arm in a restructure that will cost 35,000 jobs over the next three years. Profit before tax tumbled by a third to $13.6bn in 2019, HSBC said as it revealed its most radical overhaul since the financial crisis in [...]
Monzo plans to relaunch paid-for accounts and hire another 500 staff February 17, 2020 British fintech darling Monzo plans to recruit another 500 people as it targets 5.5m users this year and bids again to turn those numbers into a profit. Monzo, which is valued at around £2bn, is set to relaunch paid-for accounts in the first quarter of 2020 after a failed introduction last year, when it reversed [...]
RBS to rebrand as Natwest as bank posts £4.2bn profit under new boss Alison Rose February 14, 2020 Royal Bank of Scotland reported profit of £4.2bn for 2019 today, beating its financial targets as new boss Alison Rose outlined a rebrand of the bank to its Natwest name. But RBS’s share price sank 6.4 per cent to lead the FTSE 100 fallers today. Traders reacted badly to a cautious outlook on growth amid [...]
Natwest Three banker slams ‘pernicious’ US-UK extradition treaty February 10, 2020 A British banker who was extradited to the US for fraud said the extradition treaty between the two countries is a “pernicious law” that is “designed for one outcome — incarceration”. Last week, Autonomy founder Mike Lynch was arrested following a US extradition request. Lynch faces charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy in [...]
New RBS boss Alison Rose to be based solely in London February 2, 2020 New Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Alison Rose is to be based solely in London, even though the state-owned lender is headquartered in Edinburgh. Rose’s employment contrast lists RBS’s office on Bishopsgate as her sole place of work, the Sunday Times reported. Her predecessor, Ross McEwan, had a contract for London and Edinburgh. Rose, [...]
RBS boss Alison Rose mulling thousands of Natwest job cuts January 26, 2020 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is reportedly considering axing thousands of jobs at Natwest as part of a series of cost-cutting measures. Under Alison Rose, who in November became the first woman to run RBS, executives are working on the so-called Project Tusk to slash costs at the state-owned lender. One of the measures being [...]
Banks ‘use fraud warnings to avoid reimbursing victims’ January 24, 2020 Banks are not reimbursing customers who have been scammed because they have been “careless”, despite some signing a voluntary code intended to protect fraud victims, it is alleged. The voluntary industry code introduced in May 2019 was designed to help customers recover life-changing sums lost to fraudsters. However, some of Britain’s biggest banks are refusing to [...]