Banks

Sir Mervyn King has taken his seat at the table opposite Stephen Hester.  He has put on his best poker face and has suggested that it’s time for RBS to fold this hand. King watched the RBS boss lose £5 billion at the table in 2012 and more than £34 billion since sitting at the table in […]

The anti-money laundering settlement of HSBC Holdings plc (LSE:HSBA) back in December 2012 barely made a dent on Europe’s largest banking institution as it revealed its profit for last year, despite having missed market expectations. Deducting tax, HSBC group posted US$15.3 billion profit, nearly eight times more than US$1.92 billion the bank had to absorb […]

Lloyd’s Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) is ahead of its plan to transform the banking institution into a “simple, lower-risk, customer-focused UK retail and commercial” bank that supports the British economy, the London-based bank’s Chief Executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio, said in a statement Friday, in reference to the bank’s year-end report that saw a “substantial increase” in underlying […]

Bank chief Stephen Hester predicts that it will soon be ready for reprivatisation. Stephen Hester, Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has told the BBC that bank will be ready for reprivatisation within the next two years. Arguing that it is was the responsibility of the government, who currently has an 80% stake […]

Chastening has found itself a new meaning after the Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE:RBS) ended 2012 at a loss, its fifth since the financial crisis of 2008, as its profit was swallowed by a number of huge charges in what its Chief Executive said the way to “put right past mistakes”. In its report earlier […]

The yearly outlook on the Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) for 2013 looks bleak and thus bearish. There has been a sell signal on the chart below. Normally, most market movement in a downtrend has the common result of forcing bulls to smooth their orders, as exit orders are being triggered. The bulls who sustain negativity […]

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) has been ordered to pay fines in relation to the delays in the payment of the bank for the redress of the mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) to over 140,000 customers, who were supposed to receive the funds promptly,the FSA ruled. In a decision dated 15 February 2013, the regulator of […]

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 member states pledged to take necessary actions to prevent the practice of tax base erosion and profit sharing, following the conclusion of the G20 summit in Moscow. The move came following the discovery in recent months that some multinational corporations had paid little or less taxes […]

Japan breathed a sigh of relief this morning as the G20 summit in Moscow closed with no direct comment on the continuing decrease in the yen or its potential impact. The Nikkei 225 index (NIK:NI225) gained over 2% today as the yen weakened to 94.10 against the US dollar after reaching 92.25 at the close […]

Barclays’ share price (LSE:BARC) jumped over 7.0% by early afternoon as investors responded positively to the bank’s 2012 results and Antony Jenkins’ promised strategic review.  The stock was up 21.25 to 322.75 in early afternoon trading. 2012 Results Quoting Maxwell Smart, Barclays “missed it by that much,” falling just shy of market expectations of £7.07 billion...