Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is 68% owned by the taxpayer, has today reported a full 2008 year loss of £24.1 billion – the largest annual loss in UK corporate history. The loss was attributed to the “unprecedented turbulence” in financial markets according to the bank’s chairman, Philip Hampton. Mr Hampton warned that 2009 [...]
Lloyds Banking Group shares have fallen further this morning after closing more than 30% down on Friday following the news of a potential £10 billion loss at HBOS. Lloyds, which is 43% owned by the taxpayer, saw its shares fall 7.4p to 54p this morning amid speculation that the Government may be forced to inject [...]
Credit Suisse, which is Switzerland’s second-largest bank, has reported its biggest annual loss ever of SwFr8.2 billion (£5 billion) – the majority of which (SwFr6 billion) came during the October to December period in 2008. Chief Executive, Brady Dougan, described the results as ‘clearly disappointing’ but added that they had started 2009 with a very [...]
Swiss banking giant, UBS, has reported a full-year loss of SwFr19.7 billion (£11.3 billion) following a turbulent year in the banking industry. Furthermore, the bank, which is Switzerland’s largest, reported a fourth quarter loss of SwFr8.1 billion. UBS said it plans to refocus on its domestic market after a turbulent year overseas and is to [...]
Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank, has highlighted the severity of the global financial crisis by announcing its first ever annual loss. The bank made a net loss of €3.9 billion (£3.5 billion) in 2008 following a €6.5 billion profit the previous year. Meanwhile, the last quarter of 2008 saw the biggest deficit, with the bank [...]
Japan’s largest stockbroking firm, Nomura, has reported its worst ever quarterly loss blaming the integration of Lehman Brother’s Asian and European operations, which it bought last September. Its quarterly loss (which related to the October to December 2008 period) amounted to 342.9 billion yen (£2.7 billion), compared with 400.37 billion yen for the same period [...]
Banking and insurance group, ING, is set to shed 7,000 positions from its workforce as it looks to save €1 billion (£949 million), as a result of challenging economic conditions. The job losses represent 5.4% of its 130,000 workforce but the Dutch firm has not given details yet as to where the jobs will be [...]
US banking giant Citigroup has today announced a worse-than-expected fourth quarter net loss of $8.29 billion (£5.6 billion) and said it plans to split the firm into two separate businesses to restore profitability. The bank’s net loss for the last quarter of 2008 works out at $1.72 per share, far worse than most analysts’ forecasts [...]
US investment bank Morgan Stanley has announced a loss of $2.19 billion (£1.41 billion) for the three months ended November 30. The news follows that from Goldman Sachs who yesterday reported its first loss since it floated almost a decade ago. Goldman said that losses during the three months to the end of November hit [...]
Former investment bank, Goldman Sachs has reported its first loss since it floated almost a decade ago. The bank said that losses during the three months to the end of November hit $2.12 billion (£1.41 billion). However, the loss was still less than the market expected and shares gained 4%. As a consequence of the [...]
The UK’s biggest buy-to-let lender, Bradford & Bingley (B&B), has posted a loss of £26.7 million for the six months to the end of June. The result compares with a pre-tax profit of £180.4 million in the same period of 2007. Credit impairment charges for the six months rose to £74.6 million, up from £5.3 [...]
There has been a flurry of British banks reporting results and last week saw Alliance & Leicester announce that half-year profits have nearly been wiped out after taking a £209 million hit on risky assets and higher funding costs. In addition, other banks to reveal significant falls in profits include Lloyds TSB and HBOS, who [...]
Nomura Holdings, Japan’s largest securities brokerage group, announced today that it has incurred losses in the fiscal year ended March, due to sub-prime loan-related losses. Nomura posted a three-month net loss of 153.9 billion yen (£745 million, $1.47 billion). Revenue dropped 22.2% to 1.59 trillion yen. It is the latest in a long line of [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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