Virgin Money has customer boom as higher interest rates benefit Branson’s bank February 1, 2023 Virgin Money’s customer base continued to grow in the first quarter of its financial year as the challenger bank said it expects to benefit from higher interest rates for the remainder of the year. There were around 27,000 new personal current accounts opened in the period, 44 per cent more than last year. This, the [...]
City will be shaken up by AI – so we asked ChatGPT for an equities strategy February 1, 2023 Artificial intelligence and machine learning is set to transform trading over the next three years, a JP Morgan survey shows, as traders anticipate the potential for new technologies to shake up trading floors. Over half of traders surveyed in JP Morgan’s eTrading survey predicted that AI and machine learning will be the most influential technology [...]
Brexit ‘starting to bite’ three years on but City holds out hope for Edinburgh reforms February 1, 2023 City figures are yet to be convinced by the benefits of Brexit three years down the line, but hold out hope that the government’s Edinburgh reforms could turbocharge growth in the sector over the next few years. While the City has avoided a mass exodus of jobs and maintained its status as one of Europe’s [...]
Crypto: Government is considering ‘world first’ regulatory regime in UK bid to become digital asset hub January 31, 2023 The government has set out plans to “robustly regulate” the crypto asset industry as it seeks to become a cryptocurrrency hub despite the problems faced by the industry last year. The proposals include rules for crypto trading platforms and a “world-first” regime for crypto lending, as the government seeks to “embrace technological change”. Proposals will [...]
UBS posts profits of £1.4bn as banking giant reaps rewards of cost cutting and a reported client exodus from rival Credit Suisse January 31, 2023 UBS beat analysts’ profit estimates as a drop in expenses and a significant influx of new assets helped offset a fall in revenue. UBS’s profits rose 23 per cent to $1.7bn (£1.4bn) in the fourth quarter of the year, ahead of an estimated $1.3bn. Net interest income at the Swiss lender fell year-on-year compared to [...]
How global dealmaking fell to a 10-year low in 2022 – and why executives aren’t worried January 31, 2023 The value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) globally dropped 36 per cent last year to a 10-year low but executives remain confident for dealmaking in 2023, a new report from Bain shows. The report, which was released today, shows that M&A, particularly mega-deals worth more than $10bn, slumped from June 2022 after five months of [...]
Banks struggle with digital transition as new data shows 10 per cent of customer records are duplicated January 30, 2023 Major banks are struggling to manage their digital records as new data shows that around ten per cent of customer records are duplicated. Quantexa, a data analytics firm, asked 356 IT and data experts working in the UK, USA and Canada how many customer records were duplicated in their respective sectors. In the banking industry, [...]
Persimmon and Barratt to sign Gove’s cladding contract as others stall for time January 30, 2023 A handful of developers plan to sign the government contract to fix buildings affected by cladding and other fire risks in the coming weeks. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove gave developers a six-week deadline to commit to more than £2bn of repairs to fix the issues in buildings taller than 11 metres. This comes on [...]
Later life lending: Livemore secures £250m from Citi as it aims to hit £1bn in mortgage lending January 30, 2023 Livemore, a later life mortgage specialist, has secured a credit facility of up to £250m from Wall Street lender Citi as it seeks to hit £1bn in mortgage lending. “We are thrilled to receive this credit facility from Citi, which will support our growth and expanded product offering, so we can continue to serve the [...]
Ikea UK pays out £90m dividend to parent as instore sales soar January 29, 2023 Ikea reportedly paid out a £90m dividend from its UK business to its parent last year – the first in six years – as the Swedish furniture giant continues to rake in bumper profits. The dividend, reported by The Sunday Times, reflected the £62.4m profit made in 2021, a year interrupted by a series of [...]
