Britain’s HSBC firms up climate pledge after activist pressure
Britain’s HSBC toughened its climate commitments and pledged greater openness about its progress. This is after pressure from activists who said that they would now withdraw a resolution slated for its next shareholder meeting. HSBC said that it would cut financing to the fossil fuel industry in line with the goal of capping global warming at […]
Lloyds CEO shakes up bank after strategy launch
Lloyds Banking Group CEO Charlie Nunn has begun a shake-up of the lender’s top team. The internal structure as he looks to implement a strategy unveiled last month. The bank will split its three units into five as part of the plan. This is shown in an internal memo. Nunn, a former HSBC executive who […]
Britain mistakenly puts Russian central bank’s address
Britain mistakenly assigned the address of the Russian central bank to a privately held bank with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was the target of sanctions announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson slapped sanctions on five private banks. The government said that it was privately owned by elite Russian billionaires with direct links to Putin. The […]
HSBC sees risks of wider contagion to markets
The boss of HSBC, said that he was concerned about the risk of wider contagion for global markets from the deepening crisis in Ukraine. Noel Quinn told in an interview that while the direct exposure for HSBC was limited, he was alert to wider fallout. He also added that it is clear that there is […]
Credit Suisse denies wrong doing
Credit Suisse said that it strongly rejects allegations of wrongdoing after dozens of media published results of coordinated, Panama Papers-style investigations into a leak of data on thousands of accounts held there in previous decades. A person leaked the information on the accounts ranging from the 1940s to the 2010s to Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung. This […]
Swiss companies are not hoarding cash
A Swiss National Bank (SNB) survey released stated that the Swiss companies are not stockpiling cash in their strongrooms and offices to avoid being hit by negative interest rates. The SNB has charged commercial banks a negative rate of minus 0.75% since January 2015. This is as a part of its strategy to weaken demand for the safe-haven […]
Neobanks vs Incumbents
Small businesses are facing a difficult decision, such as stick with the trusted, old-guard or make the jump to something new. It is this dilemma that, even with conservative migrations, will see Neobanks continuing their meteoric rise in the financial services industry. Readily available APIs make it easier than ever to integrate core banking features […]
Swedbank shares hit by interest income dip
Swedish lender Swedbank reported slightly worse than expected quarterly earnings. This is with a drop in interest income disappointing investors and sending its shares down more than 4%. After tracking a robust recovery from the first waves of the pandemic through much of 2021, Nordic economies hit a bump in the road at the back […]
BNP Paribas brings forward BoE rate hike call to Feb
BNP Paribas is expecting that the Bank of England is to raise UK interest rate hikes by 0.25%. And that too by next month. This is early when compared to the early forecast in May. The bank‘s chief European economist Paul Hollingsworth said in a research note that with the Covid backdrop improving and inflation continuing to surprise […]
Commerzbank Q4 weighed down by provisions at Polish mBank unit
Commerzbank said that its fourth-quarter earnings would be impacted by provisions made at its Polish mBank subsidiary. It would still post a net profit for the full year. The German lender said that mBank had made provisions regarding the foreign currency indexed loan agreements in the amount of 2.006 billion zloty. Also, added that its fourth-quarter results […]