Northern Rock and the Bradford & Bingley will be merged together by the UK government in an attempt to increase the pace at which UK taxpayers can expect to receive repayment of the loans offered by the government during the credit crunch. In effect the two "bad banks" from Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, which contain potentially toxic mortgage arrangements, will be brought together under a new holding company which should reduce the cost base and strengthen the business going forward.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today confirmed that over the last six months, on average, an unbelievable 7,143 complaints were made against UK banks each and every day. A total of 1.3 million grievances have been logged over the last six months with the likes of Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest amongst the worst offenders with regards to the percentage of complaints upheld and surprisingly Spanish outfit Santander has received most complaints regarding customer services.
The Irish government has today confirmed that it fully expects Irish banks to honour their obligations because a failure to do so would seriously jeopardise the government's ability to raise finance in the future. There is no doubt that concern regarding the Irish banking situation continues to grow and with Anglo Irish Bank's senior debt downgraded by three notches today it is easy to see why some investors are running scared.
A survey by the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers has confirmed that the UK financial sector continues to improve with profitability increasing for the fifth quarter in a row. However, despite the fact that the growth figure was the fastest quarterly increase since June 2007 it would appear to have fallen short of forecasts from analysts. So what does this mean for the future?
Michael Geoghegan, the chief executive of HSBC, announced plans to leave the company in December amid reports of a boardroom bust-up. It would appear that Stephen Green's decision to relinquish his role as HSBC chairman has caused something of a major upset in the boardroom. If the rumours are correct, Michael Geoghegan threatened to resign if he was not considered for the role of chairman although this role has now gone to Douglas Flint and Stuart Gulliver will take over the role of chief executive next year.
As Santander gets ready to bring on board up to 2 million new customers from the takeover of the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest high street banking outlets the BBC has reported that Royal Bank of Scotland customers can still remain with the bank if they so wish. Under the terms of the Santander takeover of the various banking outlets, Royal Bank of Scotland is not able to encourage customers to remain with the bank with those who wish to remain with the company need to act immediately.
The Independent Commission on Banking is looking at ways to reduce the risk from banking to the overall UK economy and also to improve services. However, if the Independent Commission on Banking does take the controversial decision to split up investment banking and retail banking operations who would benefit?
HM Revenue and Customs has begun writing to taxpayers in the UK with bank accounts in Switzerland after receipt of a list of high net worth individuals with accounts at the Swiss division of HSBC. It is believed that the list was originally stolen by an employee of HSBC and passed to the French authorities who have subsequently forwarded a copy to the UK authorities.
Spanish banking giant Santander, the owner of Abbey, Bradford and Bingley and the Alliance and Leicester, has today confirmed a further 400 new jobs in the UK. The 400 jobs will be in call centres in Liverpool, Leicester and Glasgow and are on top of the 600 jobs announced in July. It seems that Santander is now making a major push for the UK market at a time when many UK banks are pulling back on their investments and their workforces.
The newly formed UK Banking Commission has today announced plans for a far-reaching investigation into the UK banking arena which will see many awkward questions asked regarding the risks and instability of the UK banking sector. There has been speculation for some time that the UK Banking Commission is targeting the breakup of large UK operations thus separating corporate finance divisions from retail outlets in order to make them more transparent and less risky.