Banks

RBS’ (LSE:RBS) divestment of it insurance arm, Direct Line Group (LSE:DLG) has officially begun with limited trading in this year’s IPO Derby.  Opening at 175.00, the share price was off and running to 186.80 mark shortly after 1:00 pm.  The 450 million shares were being gobbled up like a horse that hadn’t eaten in a […]

Britain’s second largest bank by asset, Barclays (LSE:BARC), is poised to expand its reach after agreeing to acquire a competitor’s savings and mortgage business in the UK to be added to the bank’s retail operation and said the deal will immediately be “accretive” to the bank’s return on equity. In a statement today, Barclays disclosed […]

Just one day after Michael Wheatley warned the UK banking sector that they have yet to see below the waterline of the iceberg that is looming before them in the form of the FCA, Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE:RBS) CEO Stephen Hester has taken the high ground, indicating that he intends to steer the titanic […]

The decades-old Carpenter’s hit “We’ve Only Just Begun” has become Martin Wheatley’s favorite song.  He likes to hum it in a minor key so that any bankers who hear him will sense that something major and ominous is coming.  They would be right.  For some, it’s going to be game over, once Wheatley gets the […]

London Inter-Bank Offer Rate, or LIBOR, is to remain the benchmark to be used in transacting business amongst financial institutions, incumbent Managing Director of the Financial Service Authority, Martin Wheatley, recommended.  This followed an independent review of the tainted benchmark commissioned in response to the recent rate-rigging scandal that has instigated a series of investigations...

Lloyds (LSE:LLOY), RBS (LSE:RBS) and Barclays (LSE:BARC), always leaders in the banking industry are leading it in an unenviable and potentially disastrous category:  PPI miss-selling complaints. The complaints The FSA reported this morning that overall complaints had risen a whopping 129% in the first six months of 2012.  With more than 2,230,000 complaints in the […]

The Bank of England has named the banks and financial institutions that took part in a new lending scheme  UK’s central bank formulated to boost the cash-starved British economy.  Whilst they were named, it is up to these institutions how to allocate the funds. Five of the six biggest lenders in the British market, namely: […]

RBS (LSE:RBS) Group CEO Stephen Hester presented a progress report on the restructuring process of the bank at a conference in London.  He concluded that RBS “is nearing the point of becoming a recovered bank, and well on the way to becoming a good bank.” His PowerPoint presentation demonstrated milestones reached, and objectives yet to reach […]

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) share price reached a 52-week high of 40.01 pence just a week ago on September 14th.  Despite dropping back modestly during the week, it has pushed back to 40.02 at early afternoon today following news that former exec Jessica Harper has sold her home and is moving into a prison cell […]

The impending IPO of the Direct Line Group may be the biggest buzz around London since the Olympics.  In an attempt to gain some insight about what may really happen, I took a stroll over to 221B Baker Street to visit a friend of mine, a certain Mr. Holmes, who has proven rather proficient at […]