A fun daily ritual for people working at newswires is to guess which direction a share price will open based on a results statement. It’s a really difficult game -- firstly because what seems the most general-readership-attractive angle in the update might not be the share price driver, and secondly because the buyside will price in stuff that a (probably stale) company-compiled consensus does not capture.
Britain's biggest domestic lender Lloyds Banking Group reported a 27% drop in annual profit in 2019, as it paid out billions of pounds to customers mis-sold insurance products and saw bad loans rise. Lloyds reported a pre-tax profit of 4.4 billion pounds ($5.7 billion), in line with analysts' expectations as nearly 2.5 billion pounds of provisions for compensating customers mis-sold payment protection insurance weighed. Lloyds announced a dividend of 3.37 pence per share, but no buyback as some investors had hoped for.
Lloyds Bank, more than any of the high street lenders, is pinned squarely to the economy. Lloyds has reduced its profitability targets for next year. Returns on tangible equity will slip to 12 to 13 per cent. Competition is eroding net interest margins, the difference between what the bank pays to borrow and what it earns from lending.
Goldman Sachs plans to expand its retail brand Marcus in Britain this year with more than 65 new staff, a mobile app and more savings products, as part of the group's global shift towards consumer banking. Since its British launch in 2018 Marcus has gobbled up some 13 billion pounds ($16.8 billion) in savings from competitors, by initially offering a market-leading interest rate of 1.5%.
Credit card firms must review how they treat customers that have been in persistent debt to help them save up to 1.3 billion pounds a year in lower interest charges, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday. New rules came into force in March 2018 to help customers that have, over a period of 18 months, paid more in interest, fees and charges than they have repaid on the principal balance on their card. The FCA said in a letter to CEOs of credit card firms on Monday that following a review of the rules, it was concerned that firms are proposing repayments options which are not ...
A funny thing happened to the U.K. election rally — it’s fizzled out. The election of the Boris Johnson-led Conservative Party has put an end to three years of crippling deliberation over whether Britain would leave the European Union, in what was hoped would be an unfreezing of both consumer and business spending. As the U.K. officially exits the European Union on Friday night, there’s only one place showing less excitement — financial markets.
A funny thing happened to the U.K. election rally — it’s fizzled out. The election of the Boris Johnson-led Conservative Party has put an end to three years of crippling deliberation over whether Britain would leave the European Union, in what was hoped would be an unfreezing of both consumer and business spending. As the U.K. officially exits the European Union on Friday night, there’s only one place showing less excitement — financial markets.
Standard Aberdeen Life faces pressure to cut fees with the shift to low-cost index funds along with more regulatory scrutiny. But its stock offers an enticing dividend.
With little progress to report in efforts to improve professional conduct at Britain's banks, the body charged with raising standards has suggested that getting a better night's sleep might help bankers behave better. The banking industry was asked by parliament to set up the Banking Standards Board in 2016 to improve behaviour after the financial crisis and a subsequent interest rate rigging scandal. The BSB said that its fourth annual survey of efforts to improve culture and raise standards of behaviour at banks showed little change in 2019 after a jump in 2017.
Britain's regulators should have a formal role after Brexit to keep the financial sector globally competitive and less prone to "gold-plating" international norms, an industry think tank said on Thursday. The International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG) said new thinking and targeted reforms were required after Britain leaves the European Union on Jan. 31.
Britain's Lloyds Banking Group plans to scale down its foreign exchange business by the end of the year, stung by low profitability and rising competition from its rivals, three sources familiar with the matter said. As part of a global strategic review announced in early 2018, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, which is widely seen as a bellwether for the UK economy, announced plans to focus more on its digital offering and the small- and medium-sized sector. About 10 jobs are "at risk", one ex-employee said, noting that Lloyds had already been trimming its foreign exchange team, ...
