US banking giant Morgan Stanley has today reported its second quarter results with net profit totalling $1.4 billion (£917 million), compared with a loss of $138 million in the same period a year ago. The Wall Street firm also said it saw a 53% increase in revenues of $7.95 billion compared with the same period [...]
Mid-year figures from Charity Bank and Triodos Bank show both lenders are on track for a record year of lending. During the first six months of this year, Charity bank agreed £20.9 million of new loans. This is compared to a total of £22.9 million for the whole of 2009. Figures from Triodos show new [...]
Shares in US banking giants, Bank of America (BoA) and Citigroup, fell on Friday after both banks reported their second quarter profits. Firstly, Bank of America said net income fell to $3.1 billion in the second quarter from $3.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, while revenue was down 11% to $29.15 billion [...]
US search engine giant, Google, has reported second quarter net profit of $1.84 billion (£1.2 billion) – a rise of 24% on the $1.48 billion reported in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, revenue for the three months ending June came in at $6.82 billion – also a sharp rise on the $5.52 billion [...]
US retail sales rose in April for the seventh consecutive month. The figures are closely watched since consumer spending makes up for more than two-thirds of overall economic activity in the US. According to the Commerce Department, total retail sales rose by 0.4% following an upwardly revised 2.1% gain the previous month. Furthermore, retail sales [...]
Bank of America (BoA) has today reported its first quarter earnings, rising 0.7% to $2.83 billion (£1.83 billion) from $2.81 billion a year ago, boosted by record sales and trading activity at its investment bank, as well as its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. However, the bank posted a $2.1 billion loss in its home mortgage [...]
Chipmaker Intel has reported record results for the first three months of 2010, boosted by demand for new chips for computer servers. The company, which is based in Santa Clara, California, said profits quarter one profits increased almost fourfold with net income totalling $2.4 billion (£1.5 billion), compared with $629 million in the same period [...]
The Co-operative bank saw a 38% growth in bank accounts over the past 12 months. Despite the recession, the ethical bank reported double digit growth in bank account sales for the third year running. Current account balances in 2009 were 21% higher than in 2008, the bank said. The company also reported a “marked increase” [...]
The world’s largest advertising group WPP has seen an improvement in profits after a ‘brutal’ 2009. The advertising giant said pre-tax profits had tumbled by 16% year-on-year to £812 million. However, this was better than the £780 million forecast. Meanwhile, revenue grew by 16% to £8.7 billion, while like-for-like sales fell 8%. The company was [...]
London-based bank Standard Chartered today announced a rise in pre-tax profits – meeting analysts expectations. The bank, which has a strong presence in Asia, said pre-tax profits in 2009 were £3.4 billion ($5.15 billion), a rise of 13% on 2008 figures. Meanwhile, revenue was up 9% to £10.14 billion ($15.18 billion). However, while many other [...]
Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, has today said pre-tax profits fell to $7.07 billion (£4.6 billion) last year compared with $9.3 billion in the previous year. The banking giant said loan impairments charges and other credit provisions were $26.5 billion in 2009 – a rise of 9% compared with the previous year. Stephen Green, chairman of [...]
The UK Financial Investments Ltd (UKFI) has written to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to approve its £1.3 billion in bonuses to its investment bankers. The Treasury, through the UKFI, had the right to veto any bonus deal after the bank participated in the Government’s Asset Protection Scheme (APS) – one of the conditions [...]
British Airways (BA) passengers will face travel chaos after the airline’s 12,000 cabin crew members voted in favour to take industrial action over cost-cutting measures, which include a pay freeze, a switch to part-time working for thousands of staff and working conditions. The results of the strike emerged this evening after Len McCluskey, assistant general [...]
Fears of travel chaos could emerge later as the results of a ballot is set to be announced. A second strike ballot for British Airways (BA) 12,000 cabin crew members is to close today after they vowed to take industrial action over cost-cutting measures, which include a pay freeze and a switch to part-time working [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief executive, Stephen Hester, has decided not to take his £1.6 million bonus, according to the BBC. The decision by the 49-year-old comes just a week after Barclays chief executive John Varley and president Bob Diamond both agreed to sacrifice bonuses for the second year in a row, in light [...]
The 10-year search and advertising deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has been approved today by both the US Department of Justice and the European Commission. Both companies said they plan to begin the tie-up in the next few days and the deal will be finalised by early 2012. The deal, which was agreed in July [...]
Banking giant Barclays has today reported a 92% rise in full-year profits to £11.6 billion, compared with £6.07 billion in 2008. The bank said the strong figures were the result of its sale of its fund management division, Barclays Global Investors, for £8.2 billion last summer. Barclays is one of the few banks not to [...]
Irish budget airline Ryanair has today posted a €10.9 million (£9.4 million) loss for the October to December quarter. However, the loss for Europe’s largest no-frills airline was much less than the €101.5 million deficit it posted for the same period a year earlier – when fuel costs were sky-high. The group said the result [...]
As part of a major restructure, Britain’s largest drugs company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to slash 4,000 positions, according to The Sunday Times. According to press reports, the job losses are part of plans to shift its focus to emerging markets, such as China which has greater potential to increase sales growth. The company has a [...]
Around 100 senior employees at Goldman Sachs in London are capping their 2009 pay and bonuses at £1 million each. The move comes as part of the Chancellor’s super tax, which was introduced to claw back some of the bailout funds used to rescue the banking industry. According to the BBC, the tax represents a [...]
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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