The Bank of Israel has announced that it is increasing the interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%. It is the lowest the Israeli rate has been since February when the bank cut rates by 25 basis points to 0.75%. The change comes as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) exceeded forecasters’ predictions by rising [...]
German bank BayernLB has announced it recorded operating income of €597m for the first six months of 2009. It is almost a mirror image of the operating loss of €595m incurred for the same time in 2008. Net income (after tax) reached €359m. The bank also substantially increased its credit risk provisions, particularly for Eastern [...]
Sberbank has released its financial results for the first seven months of the year. The Russian bank saw operating income (before provisions) surge by 34.5% year-on-year, with a rise of 44.1% in net interest income. Operating expenses declined by 3.6% but the firm had an eightfold higher risk provision compared to the same time last [...]
IKB Deutsche Industriebank has released its interim financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year. IKB made a consolidated profit of €19.4m, an enormous improvement on the loss of €517.1m incurred during the same quarter last year. In the full-year 2008/9 the bank made a loss of €580m, and will be pleased to [...]
Santander is offering to buy back its debt at discount prices. The Spanish bank, which owns Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, says it will purchase asset-backed bonds with a face value of €16.5 billion, paying between 61 cents and 95.5 cents on the euro. The deal relates to 27 different series issued by specific securitization [...]
A new report from KPMG highlights the difficulties faced by building societies and predicts a further spate of mergers. The accountancy firm’s Building Society Database 2009 reveals that only 15 societies achieved group asset growth exceeding 10% in the year to April, compared with 36 in the same period of 2007/2008. Of the UK’s top [...]
Britons are feeling more optimistic about their ability to save, according to the Nationwide Future Savings Index. The Index, which measures consumer confidence in the ability to save, increased five points to 106 in July, scaling to an all-time high. The gap between those who believed they would be saving more in six months’ time [...]
The chairman of Lloyds Banking Group has admitted that the pace at which HBOS’s losses have mounted has come as a surprise. Speaking to the BBC, the outgoing Sir Victor Blank described the losses as “at the worst end of expectations”, adding that when the merger was announced in September of last year it felt [...]
Chelsea Building Society has admitted to having lost £41 million through mortgage fraud, plunging the mutual into a £26 million pre-tax loss for the first six months of 2009, compared with a profit of £23 million for the same period of 2008. Impairments on loans and advances totalled £53 million for the period (compared with [...]
In its latest Trends in Lending report the Bank of England has revealed that total net lending to businesses fell across all the main industrial sectors during the second quarter of 2009. For smaller firms, without access to the capital markets, the availability of finance remained “more subdued”. However, corporates turned to the markets to [...]
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has released its interim financial results for the first six months of the year. The ICBC’s pre-tax profits rose 2.8% compared to the same period in 2008 to reach RMB 66.7bn. Although recording steady growth in profits, the bank has been affected like all others by the [...]
The elusive £5 note could stage a comeback as banks begin to dispense more fivers from their cash machines. HSBC has begun a trial in conjunction with the Bank of England, dispensing more £5 notes across the Midlands and South West England. While ATMs are designed to hold notes of all denominations, the fiver has [...]
Britain could face years of historically low interest rates, according to Standard Chartered’s chief economist. In an interview with The Guardian, Gerard Lyons argues that an expansion of the quantitative easing programme, which is aimed at getting banks to lend more, could see the Bank of England’s base rate stuck at 0.5% for another four [...]
Opportunities for Glasgow’s finance workers could be just around the corner with Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) announcing the opening of a call centre in the city. TPF already offers credit cards plus savings and insurance products but has plans to expand into retail banking. The group has plans to open bank branches in 30 of [...]
Merrill Lynch has revealed that its August Survey of Fund Managers has uncovered a substantial rise in optimism about the prospects of the global economy in the immediate future. Optimism amongst investors stands at its highest level since 2003, with 75% expecting the global economy to grow over the course of the next year. Confidence [...]
Lloyds Banking Group is having second thoughts about removing Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) from the High Street. In June the group announced that 164 branches of the mortgage lending unit would shut, although it was understood that the brand would remain. However, a Lloyds spokeswoman has told the BBC that the branches will not now [...]
A security sepcialist is warning that attempted card-not-present (CNP) fraud is set to soar in China, with a 60% increase already recorded in the country’s airline sector, in the last six months. Retail Decisions (ReD) has been working in conjunction with Chinabank Payment (CBP), a leading payment service provider in the country, to predict the [...]
US authorities are investigating over 150 clients of Swiss investment bank, UBS, in connection with tax evasion. The figure has emerged via a document filed in a Florida court which is in the process of sentencing former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld, for helping American clients hide their wealth. US prosecutors began examining the possibility that [...]
UK banks could face losses on their retail businesses in the second half of the year, despite a steady first half. A new survey from accountancy firm, KPGM, suggests that bad loans, strong competition for savings and wholesale funding difficulties will dog the sector. Bad loans are expected to peak in 2010 or possibly beyond, [...]
Anglo Irish Bank’s board has announced the appointment of Mike Aynsley as the new group chief executive. Aynsley brings tremendous personal experience of the financial and banking sector garnered over a career more than 30 years long. He has worked in Australia, New Zealand, the Asia Pacific Region and the United Kingdom and will take [...]
