Category Archives: Banking

Australia’s booming banks should do more to protect customers from scams, advocates say

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More than $95m has been lost to scams so far this year, while the big four are expected to make more than $33bn

With the big four banks tipped to make record profits this financial year, consumer rights advocates are calling for financial institutions to invest more in protecting customers against scams.

Australians have lost more than $96m to scams so far this year, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission estimating that is just the tip of the iceberg as most go unreported.

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Furious Credit Suisse investors say bank’s board should be ‘put behind bars’

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Shareholders lash out during final AGM as boss apologises for crisis that led to takeover of lender by UBS

Furious Credit Suisse investors at its final ever annual meeting blocked executive pay plans and called for board members to be “put behind bars”, as the Swiss lender’s chair said he was “truly sorry” over the bank’s demise.

Shareholders used most of the nearly five-hour annual general meeting in Zurich – the last in the 167-year-old bank’s history – to voice fury over poor management, hitting out at excessive pay for “incompetent and greedy” bankers who they said took too many risks and endangered Switzerland’s economic prosperity.

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Deadline to sell off UK government’s NatWest shares extended to 2025

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Recent banking turmoil fuels decision to delay offloading portions of its remaining 41% stake

A plan to whittle down the government’s stake in NatWest has been extended by another two years, after weeks of banking turmoil that hit the lender’s shares and temporarily fuelled fears over a fresh financial crisis.

UK Government Investments (UKGI), which manages the shares on behalf of the Treasury, said the scheme to strategically sell portions of the British taxpayer’s shareholding – after NatWest’s near-£46bn state bailout in 2008 – would now run until August 2025.

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Switzerland’s attorney general to investigate Credit Suisse takeover

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Inquiry to focus on whether emergency state-backed UBS takeover breached criminal law

Switzerland’s federal prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether last month’s state-backed takeover of the stricken bank Credit Suisse by its bigger rival UBS broke Swiss criminal law.

The office of the attorney general said it was looking into potential breaches by government officials, regulators and executives at the two banks who thrashed out an emergency merger over a frantic weekend in mid-March to prevent a wider financial meltdown.

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Australia’s soaring interest rates have trapped ‘mortgage prisoners’ into crushing repayments

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A growing cohort of pandemic-era homebuyers are also unable to refinance because they no longer meet lenders’ standards

A growing number of Australian have become “mortgage prisoners” – trapped by crippling mortgages they are unable to renegotiate.

This growing cohort of pandemic-era homebuyers are unable to refinance because they no longer meet lenders’ standards after recent rate increases.

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AMP shareholders vote against executive pay packets over concerns bonuses too high

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Shareholders at Sydney AGM say remuneration excessive for a financial institution that has dramatically shrunk in recent years

AMP shareholders have voted against executive pay packets at the troubled financial institution over concerns bonuses are too high for a company delivering lacklustre performance and a weak share price.

AMP has lost about three-quarters of its market value in the five years since the banking royal commission disclosed numerous poor practices at the company, including its willingness to charge insurance premiums to dead customers.

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Silicon Valley Bank collapse was fastest since Barings, says BoE governor

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Credit Suisse crisis was ‘drawn out’ compared with SVB demise, Andrew Bailey tells MPs

The governor of the Bank of England has admitted he was surprised by how quickly Silicon Valley Bank failed, saying it was the fastest demise of a lender since Barings Bank collapsed in the mid-1990s.

Andrew Bailey told MPs on the Treasury select committee it had been decades since a lender had gone from “health to death” within a matter of days, saying that Barings Bank – which was brought down by the rogue trader Nick Leeson – was the only worthwhile comparison to what happened to the US tech lender.

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Saudi National Bank chair resigns after Credit Suisse comments

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Ammar Al Khudairy’s remarks about Swiss lender spurred investor panic that led to emergency takeover

The chair of the Saudi National Bank has resigned for “personal reasons” less than two weeks after his comments spurred investor panic over Credit Suisse that ended in an emergency takeover by its larger Swiss rival, UBS.

The Saudi National Bank (SNB), which was Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder, announced on Monday that it had “accepted” Ammar Al Khudairy’s resignation, and that he would be immediately replaced by its chief executive.

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Investors force HSBC shareholder vote on structural overhaul

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Minority shareholder Ken Lui leads campaign seeking to split bank’s Asian and western businesses

Hong Kong investors have forced HSBC into a shareholder vote on its structure and strategy, including a potential spin-off of its Asian arm.

An investor group, led by the minority shareholder Ken Lui, said the bank’s Asian activities were “effectively subsidising the western businesses, to the detriment of HSBC’s global shareholders” in a way that undermines efforts to increase the bank’s value and growth.

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Head of Credit Suisse talks of his profound sadness over UBS takeover

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Ulrich Körner acknowledges an ‘emotional and challenging week’ after deal was forced through by Swiss authorities

The chief executive of stricken Credit Suisse has said that he shares its employees’ “profound sadness and disappointment” after its emergency takeover by rival UBS earlier this week.

UBS took over Credit Suisse on Sunday in a £2.65bn deal forced through by Swiss authorities amid fears that a failure to protect depositors would kickstart a global banking crisis.

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Britain’s biggest banks under pressure to pass on higher interest rates to savers

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Unite says their analysis shows banks have made £7bn in extra profit from the rise in borrowing costs

Britain’s biggest banks are under pressure to pass on higher interest rates to savers after figures showing they have made an extra £7bn by refusing to do so, and as they stand to benefit from a tax cut announced by Jeremy Hunt.

On the day the Bank of England is expected to announce a further rise in interest rates, the Unite trade union said banks had already made billions of pounds in extra profit from the dramatic rise in borrowing costs.

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UK and US shares climb as banks and ministers aim to calm Credit Suisse fears

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FTSE 100 rises and European banking shares are up after early jitters over what UBS takeover deal means for bondholders

Stocks climbed on Monday in London and New York after central bankers and politicians sought to soothe jitters triggered by the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse during the weekend.

Central banks in the UK and eurozone issued statements aimed at reassuring investors that – unlike the controversial approach taken by the Swiss authorities in the Credit Suisse deal – their jurisdictions would follow a hierarchy in which equity holders would lose out before bond holders.

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UBS agrees takeover of stricken Credit Suisse for $3.25bn

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Swiss government forces through takeover at well below market value amid fears of global banking crisis

The Swiss government has forced through the takeover of stricken bank Credit Suisse by rival UBS for almost $3.25bn (£2.65bn) – well below its market value – amid fears that a failure to protect depositors would trigger a new global banking crisis.

After a weekend of frantic talks, the Swiss government and the banking regulator brokered a deal once it became clear a $54bn loan to Credit Suisse from the Swiss central bank had failed to halt the precipitous slide in its share price.

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Elizabeth Warren says Fed chair ‘failed’ and calls for inquiry into bank collapse

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Progressive Democrat launches offensive on politicians on the left and the right who supported Trump-era deregulation of US banks

Political fall-out in the US from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continued on Sunday when leftwing Senator Elizabeth Warren hit the morning talk shows and repeatedly called for an independent investigation into US bank failures and strongly criticised Federal Reserve finance officials.

The progressive Democrat from Massachusetts, who has positioned herself as a consumer protection advocate and trenchant critic of the US banking system, told CBS’s Face the Nation that she did not have faith in San Francisco Federal Reserve president Mary Daly or Fed chairman Jerome Powell.

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Credit Suisse shares continue to fall despite efforts to calm nerves

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Lifelines handed to Swiss bank and US regional bank First Republic fail to ease investor concerns

Credit Suisse shares came under renewed pressure on Friday, despite fresh attempts by central banks and politicians to calm fears about a crisis in the global banking industry sparked by the collapse of two US banks this week.

Shares in Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, fell 8% on Friday despite securing a £45bn emergency loan from the Swiss National Bank just days earlier to shore up its liquidity after a week of panic.

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Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company files for bankruptcy

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SVB Financial Group files for chapter 11 protection but failed Silicon Valley Bank, now under FDIC control, is not part of it

Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, a week after the tech lender was taken over by federal regulators following a 36-hour surge of depositor withdrawals that triggered the worst bank collapse since the financial crisis.

SVB Financial Group filed for chapter 11 protection on Friday in New York bankruptcy court where administrators will set about selling off assets to meet creditors claims.

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US banks launch $30bn rescue of First Republic to stem spiraling crisis

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Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan agree to prop up troubled bank after its shares tumbled amid wider turmoil

Wall Street’s giants moved to end the US’s spiraling banking crisis on Thursday by agreeing to prop up troubled First Republic, a mid-sized bank whose shares have been pummeled amid a wider banking turmoil.

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and others will deposit $30bn in First Republic, which has seen customers yank their money following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and fears that First Republic could be next.

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ECB raises eurozone interest rate despite banking sector fears

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Concerns half-point could set off domino effect across financial industry knocked by Credit Suisse crisis

The European Central Bank has raised interest rates across the eurozone by 0.5 percentage points, despite fears that higher borrowing costs could set off a domino effect across a banking sector already reeling from a collapse in confidence in Switzerland’s second largest lender, Credit Suisse.

Officials at the ECB, the central bank covering the 19-member euro bloc, said inflation was likely to remain high “for too long”, forcing it to continue with its planned run of rate increases.

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ECB faces dilemma over interest rate rise amid Credit Suisse crisis

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European Central Bank could opt for smaller increase as concerns spread over health of banking system

The European Central Bank is facing a dilemma over whether to push ahead with its plans for a large interest rise on Thursday amid fears over the strength of the banking system after Wednesday’s heavy sell-off of the Swiss banking firm Credit Suisse.

After raising interest rates since last summer at a record pace to tackle high inflation across the eurozone, the ECB had in effect committed to another 0.5 percentage point increase in borrowing costs this week.

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Credit Suisse takes $54bn loan from Swiss central bank after share price plunge

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After largest shareholder was unable to provide backing, Europe’s 17th largest lender says it will use government help to become ‘simpler and more focused’

Credit Suisse has announced that it will take a CHF50bn ($53.7bn) loan from the Swiss central bank, in an action it says will “pre-emptively strengthen its liquidity” as it moves to stem a crisis of confidence a day after its share price plummeted.

This additional liquidity would support the bank in taking the “necessary steps to create a simpler and more focused bank built around client needs”, its statement said. The bank said it was also making buyback offers on about $3bn worth of debt.

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